Buen Gusto and Classicism in the Visual Cultures of Latin America, 1780-1910

10: Art and Viceregal Taste in Late Colonial Lima and Buenos Aires

206 Chapter Ten Art and Viceregal Taste in Late Colonial Lima and Buenos Aires Emily Engel Viceroy Manuel de Amat y Junient was a zealous Bourbon Reform–era leader in the Viceroyalty of Peru. His memoirs and correspondence teem with lengthy descriptions and praise of his accomplishments in improving colonial bureaucracy, reestablishing the vigor of the military, and ensuring public order throughout the region. Though proud of all of his successes, Amat tenderly described the architectural achievements he facilitated in his Relación de gobierno of 1776.1 Amat’s commentary reveals his opinion on the importance of public works to remedy the disorder plaguing the viceregal capital. He states that improved public facilities provided accessible spaces for rest and rejuvenation, a bridge between affluent and popular social classes. Although he does not explicitly describe the structures he sponsored, all of the architecture created under Amat’s reign exhibits visual qualities now classified by art historians as neoclassical, a style that revived classical artistic form and content in an often overly simplified manner. Implicit in Amat’s use of neoclassical architecture to provide enhanced social services is the capacity for artistic style to resonate with users and viewers in the dynamic colonial environment. In late colonial South America, neoclassical art and architecture is most often associated with official Spanish authority; however, as this essay demonstrates, taste for neoclassically styled art and architecture did not 207 Emily Engel simply serve the Bourbon reconquest agenda. As Immanuel Kant proffers, aesthetically pleasing works of art invite contemplation and criticism of style, form, and content. Attempting a universal standardization of taste, Kant links the concept of taste with morality and, therefore, virtue. Although a totalizing conception of taste cannot be applied universally, Kant’s connection between taste and morality resonates in late colonial South American practice, especially in light of Amat’s characterization of his neoclassical architectural projects.2 Although Charles III, his agents, and the nobility developed a taste for neoclassical art and architecture in late eighteenth-century Spain, the style was not purposefully deployed to the American colonies, despite other cultural reforming efforts. Accounts of viceregal tenure addressed to the Crown, like that by Amat cited above, contain no references to commissioning artworks as part of a royally mandated program of visual propaganda. On the contrary, the viceroys of late colonial South America independently supported public works and personally sponsored artworks, such as portrait paintings, and architecture.3 Viceregal collection and patronage of American art indicate an aesthetic preference for the style and content of artworks created in-colony, which often combined traditional, highly ornamented attributes with the simple refinement of neoclassicism. In his analysis of viceregal collecting practice, Gauvin Bailey suggests that most works of art produced for viceroys residing in the Americas represent the retention of links to Europe and a newfound affinity for their temporary colonial home. Bailey’s argument implies a connection between the sponsorship of artwork and the construction of identity. More than a type of tourist art, viceregal sponsorship of the arts cannot be parsed in terms of viceregal identity as a personal experience and as an aspect of colonial authority . In this essay, I argue that in sponsoring works of art or architecture, the Bourbon South American viceroys palpably contemplated and constructed “American” components of their evolving identities. Collecting art considered to be in good taste within American contexts buttressed viceregal status and contributed to individual prestige for the immigrant Spanish bureaucrats residing in foreign territories. Viceregal preferences in the arts did not originate in Spain; rather, viceregal taste incorporated local and international elements of style. In the second half of the eighteenth century in the urban capitals of South America, public discourse did not regularly incorporate the term identidad (identity); however, the proliferation of viceroy-sponsored art and architecture indicates an emerging concern with self-identification by way of 208 Chapter ten painted, printed, or sculpted representations executed in fashionable styles with relevant content. The viceroys were not completely colonizing royal agents nor were they colonized Spanish American subjects, and the works of art they sponsored while in office jockeyed their official, personal, and humanitarian goals by demonstrating their aesthetic erudition and worldly sophistication. Official portraits and public architecture exhibit definable stylistic criteria . Style, or a cohesive visual aesthetic, is not necessarily historically labeled. Art historians can, however, turn to the remaining body of work to delineate elements of a regional or...