Art, Nature, and Religion in the Central Andes: Themes and Variations from Prehistory to the Present

Chapter 11. Tinware (Hojalatería) and Huamanga Stone Carving (Piedra de Huamanga)

Hojalatería, or tinware, and piedra de Huamanga, or alabaster carving, are two arts of Ayacucho that are in danger of disappearing despite their great beauty and venerable history in Andean arts traditions. These two contemporary arts represent the complex legacies of metalworking and stoneworking in the Andean past. This chapter includes the two genres in separate sections, first tinware and second Huamanga stonework. Tinware (Hojalatería) Tinworking artists of today face the disappearance of buyers for their utilitarian pieces due to factory-made metal and plastic items that now flood the market. As a response, artists focus on innovations aimed at promoting their decorative repertoire. Tinwork, “the poor man’s silver,” has historical roots in the Andes as well as other areas of Latin America and in Spain. The appearance of plastics and items made through mass production in other materials have endangered the future existence of a large repertoire of pieces once made of plain or decorated tin. Hojalatería includes utilitarian tin items such as kitchen sieves, watering cans, pots, buckets, and the like. Artisans still make these by hand, though they encounter a great deal of competition from plastic and metal factory-made items. Decorative tin pieces in the shapes of Christian crosses, candlesticks, mirror and picture frames, toys, Chapter 11 Tinware (Hojalatería) and Huamanga Stone Carving (Piedra de Huamanga) 305-322 strong_CH11.indd 305 2/6/12 11:38:14 AM 306 Andean Arts Today and figurines also abound. Artists leave some of these pieces in the natural metal color, though they burnish it and treat it against rust. Other pieces are brightly colored in addition to having the pressed, snipped, curled, and punched designs they share with nonpainted works. Tin crosses grace the roofs of many Andean homes to bless and guard them against evil. Tin candelabras resemble those found on church altars and like them bear designs of flowers, birds, and animals as well as religious figures such as angels and saints. History of Andean Metalworking Archeologists have unearthed metalwork in gold,silver,tin,bronze,coppertin , and other pure and combined materials. Andeans perfected various complex metalworking techniques, including filigree styles that served both scientific and artistic purposes.This discussion derives primarily from archeological studies including Burger 1992, Morris andVon Hagen 1993, and Moseley 1992.Metallurgy shares with textiles and ceramics a venerable and complex past in the Andean region. Archeologists found gold foil as early as 1900–1500 BCE among pre-Chavín civilizations and copperwork before 1000 BCE (3000 BP). By 500 BCE (2500 BP) the early Chavín people were forging and annealing gold. The tradition of joining pieces of preshaped metal sheeting came about at this time as well as soldering and sweat-welding techniques. Repoussé (metal relief ) decoration and the making of silver and gold alloys were also in evidence. While in the northern Andes people had access to copper-arsenic ores and practiced gold and silver working, in the southern Andes crafts workers used copper and tin and produced bronze.There were copper-smelting sites at Tiahuanacu between 1200 and 800 BCE (3200–1800 BP). Moche smiths worked with all metals but tin-bronze.Moche metallurgy rivaled that culture’s own ceramic tradition. Moche artists worked with sheets over molds but also made cast metal with the lost-wax method. They employed hammering, annealing, soldering, welding, crimping, stapling, and attaching interlocking slabs and produced delicate filigree work. Moche ear spools, necklaces, rattles, plaques, masks, nose ornaments, headdresses, and armor abound in burial sites such as that of the Lord of Sipán.One example of this is an ornate necklace featuring medallions made up of spiders sitting on intricate webs.The Moche perfected electroplating by chemical means and techniques for making copper look like pure silver or gold. Other Peruvian coastal cultures also developed flourishing 305-322 strong_CH11.indd 306 2/6/12 11:38:14 AM Tinware (Hojalatería) and Huamanga Stone Carving (Piedra de Huamanga) 307 metallurgical traditions.The Nazca were making hammered-gold religious figures of combined animals like those pictured in their pottery. The Incas brought North Coast Chimú metalworkers to Cuzco after conquering their civilization, which, in turn, had inherited and improved upon the Moche traditions. From the Lake Titicaca region the Incas brought architects to work on Cuzco buildings as well as their technique for joining stone blocks with copper clamps. The Incas borrowed the tinbronze tradition from...