Quito, ciudad de maestros. Arquitectos, edificios y urbanismo en el largo siglo XVII by Susan V. Webster (review)

Representing more than a decade of archival research in Ecuador, Peru, Spain, and the United States, this study presents new information regarding the architects and craftsmen who participated in the construction of Quito's most recognized churches in the seventeenth century. The author states that although the architecture in Quito appears markedly European, as has been repeatedly noted by various scholars, the typical emphasis on the visible ignores two hidden yet significant elements: the identities of the craftsmen involved and the processes of construction. Examination of these, she asserts, reveals the indigenous presence and thus constitutes a central premise of the book.

The text is organized into ten chapters. The first chapter establishes a context for the discussion of craftsmen and architecture in Quito. The author outlines institutional and organizational structures and notes the ethnic and cultural pluralism of the population. In the second chapter, she defines what she refers to as distinctly European (that is, Iberian) and distinctly Andean (that is, Inca) ópticas, or visual-material esthetics. In chapters 3 and 4 she examines two of the more notable architectural complexes in Quito: the Iglesia de Santo Francisco and the Igelsia de Santo Domingo. The remaining five chapters provide biographical information about specific masters and include excerpts drawn from primary documents. With the exception of the first two chapters, the main body of the text directly references archival sources such as contracts, accompanied by informative summaries that identify individual agents, note contractual details, and describe the construction process.

The author attempts to provide a critical frame for the study by opening the discussion with a probable yet tenuous thesis: she suggests that a discernible correspondence existed between pre-contact Andean esthetic concerns—that is, a native focus on process and materials—and those of native craftsmen living and working in the seventeenth century when Eurocentric emphases on form and construction presumably dominated. Referring to the work of pre-Hispanic art historian Carolyn Dean, the author briefly comments on the relationship between Inca builders and their perceptions of the qualities of the stone they worked. The author states that it is "very probable" that materials and process were more important than style and form to indigenous craftsmen working well into the post-contact colonial period.

There is an assumption in this statement of an essential, uninterrupted esthetic perception among natives across time and in spite of significant cultural transformation. This assumption is questionable given its speculative nature and the lack of evidence in the documents to support this claim. What the archival sources do seem to confirm is the active involvement at various levels of indigenous (and probably mestizo) craftsmen in major architectural commissions. What they thought about their work, and how they saw it, assuming the validity of a distinct "native" point of view, are impossible to ascertain based on the primary documents presented.

Interestingly, the author notes that the assumption of a European/Indigenous perspectival dichotomy has led to the novel realization that natives might have felt a sense of familiarity and even ownership of colonial architectural concepts and designs. The latter observation presupposes shared worldviews or points of commonality in spite of visible differences, problematizing any essential reading equating race with culture, or worse yet, attributing an ahistorical or static state to natives via the suggestion of some kind of continuous, intact sensibility that stood uniformly immune from larger transcultural influences.

Indigenous subjects inarguably contributed to a wide range of colonial cultural production, some of it visibly hybrid but not all. The involvement of natives in various capacities in architectural projects was common throughout the colonial period, and Webster's study presents a detailed report on the subject as it relates to the Quito region. Consequently, scholars and students will find it to be an invaluable resource as they develop their own research. The author did an able job of...