Ildefonso de Zúñiga
Casket (Arqueta)1736

On view:

Geffen Galleries, The Iberian World: From Spain to Spanish America

Small domed casket with crimson red body covered in applied silver metalwork — rope borders, shell medallions, floral rosettes, and stud decoration — with a carry handle, iron hasp, and four ball feet

Small domed chest of tortoiseshell panels framed with engraved silver mounts, raised on four silver ball feet with a silver loop handle; front panels decorated with engraved stylized trees and a central cartouche containing a Spanish inscription in cursive script.

Artist or Maker: Ildefonso de Zúñiga
active Mexico, Guadalajara, first half of the 18th century
Title: Casket (Arqueta)
Date Made: 1736
Medium: Wood, tortoiseshell, and silver
Dimensions: 7 3/8 × 3 3/4 × 5 1/8 in. (18.8 × 9.6 × 13 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number: M.2022.10
Classification: Furnishings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: Beautifully fashioned out of silver and tortoiseshell—two precious materials abundant in New Spain—this chest evokes the viceroyalty’s legendary wealth. The cast silver shells conjure the profusion of mother-of-pearl, a principal commodity of the region. Such boxes were valued as gifts and circulated across Spanish America and Europe. An unusual detail is the engraved inscription on the back, which indicates its origin, the name of the maker, and the date of manufacture, pointing to a pride in craft: “This chest was made in the city of Guadalajara on April 3, 1736, by Don Ildefonso de Zúñiga.”

The maker’s name signals an association with a family of artists active in multiple centers across the viceroyalty. For example, two comparable boxes in private collections in Spain are signed and dated in Guatemala by other craftspeople with the same surname—Blas Antonio Pérez de Zúñiga, 1730, and Clemente Pérez de Zúñiga, 1736—which suggests that particular luxury commodities were created in family-run workshops.

Ilona Katzew

2024
Provenance: Private collection, Cádiz, Spain; Alcalá Subastas, Madrid, December 23, 2021, lot 1360; Carteia Fine Arts, Madrid, 2021; LACMA, 2022.
Selected Bibliography: Ilona Katzew, “Special Things: Boxes in Spanish America,” Unframed, July 20, 2022, https://unframed.lacma.org/2022/07/20/special-things-boxes-spanish-america.
Selected Exhibition History: Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 12, 2022 - October 30, 2022
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024

Related Exhibitions

Ildefonso de Zúñiga
Casket (Arqueta)1736

On view:

Geffen Galleries, The Iberian World: From Spain to Spanish America

Artist or Maker: Ildefonso de Zúñiga
active Mexico, Guadalajara, first half of the 18th century
Title: Casket (Arqueta)
Date Made: 1736
Medium: Wood, tortoiseshell, and silver
Dimensions: 7 3/8 × 3 3/4 × 5 1/8 in. (18.8 × 9.6 × 13 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number: M.2022.10
Classification: Furnishings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: Beautifully fashioned out of silver and tortoiseshell—two precious materials abundant in New Spain—this chest evokes the viceroyalty’s legendary wealth. The cast silver shells conjure the profusion of mother-of-pearl, a principal commodity of the region. Such boxes were valued as gifts and circulated across Spanish America and Europe. An unusual detail is the engraved inscription on the back, which indicates its origin, the name of the maker, and the date of manufacture, pointing to a pride in craft: “This chest was made in the city of Guadalajara on April 3, 1736, by Don Ildefonso de Zúñiga.”

The maker’s name signals an association with a family of artists active in multiple centers across the viceroyalty. For example, two comparable boxes in private collections in Spain are signed and dated in Guatemala by other craftspeople with the same surname—Blas Antonio Pérez de Zúñiga, 1730, and Clemente Pérez de Zúñiga, 1736—which suggests that particular luxury commodities were created in family-run workshops.

Ilona Katzew

2024
Provenance: Private collection, Cádiz, Spain; Alcalá Subastas, Madrid, December 23, 2021, lot 1360; Carteia Fine Arts, Madrid, 2021; LACMA, 2022.
Selected Bibliography: Ilona Katzew, “Special Things: Boxes in Spanish America,” Unframed, July 20, 2022, https://unframed.lacma.org/2022/07/20/special-things-boxes-spanish-america.
Selected Exhibition History: Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 12, 2022 - October 30, 2022
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024