Biombo Portraying a View of the Palace of the Viceroy in Mexico City, 17th c.
Museo de América, Madrid, Spain.

Biombos, folding wooden screens used as room dividers, were initially brought to New Spain from Japan. They came as one of many Asian trade goods funneled through the Spanish-held Philippines to Spanish America. The biombo offers a panorama of Mexico City’s center, and visually echoes the political order of the colony, with the Viceregal palace dominating the scene. The seemingly casual vignettes of daily life can also be read as a prescription of social roles. The Viceroy’s coach, drawn by elegant black horses, rolls past his palace façade, upper upper-class residents stroll leisurely along the tree-lined paths of the Alameda at left, while the “castes”—indigenous, African, mestizo and mulatto people—work market stalls at bottom right.

By the 17th century, biombos were being made in New Spain for the homes of wealthy residents. Some Mexican biombos were eventually shipped to Europe (as was this one). The artist of this biombo, whose name is unknown today, pays tribute to the Asian origin of the form. Large golden clouds hover over the painted surface of the scene, similar to those on Japanese screens. In all likelihood, the mixing of European narrative with Japanese nature painting was appealing to the screen’s patrons as well as its artist. The economies and visual culture of Spanish America thus depended heavily upon trade across the Pacific, as well as the Atlantic.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Amerlinck de Corsi, María Concepción. 1999. “Vistas del palacio del virrey en México.” In Los siglos de oro en los virreinatos de América: 1550-1700. Pp. 158-162. Madrid: Sociedad Estatal para la Conmemoracion de los Centenarios de Felipe II y Carlos V.

Schreffler, Michael. 2004. ‘No Lord Without Vassals, Nor Vassals Without a Lord’: The Royal Palace aand the Shape of Kingly Power in Viceregal Mexico City.” Oxford Art Journal 27 (2): 155-172.

Viento detenido: mitologías e historias en el arte del biombo; colección de biombos de los siglos XVII al XIX de Museo Soumaya. 1999. Mexico City: Museo Soumaya.

	Mestizo: (Spanish) A person of indigenous and European descent. The female form is mestiza. back to text
	Mulatto: (Spanish) A multi-racial person of African descent. In Spanish America, according to the proscribed definition of the casta system, mulattos had one parent of African descent and one of European; in practice, peopled labeled as mulattos could have indigenous and multi-racial parents and/or ancestors. back to text
	New Spain: (English) The name that Spain gave to her northern Viceroyalty, which comprised the modern regions of Mexico, Central America, Venezuela, and the Caribbean. The capital city was Mexico City. back to text
	Spanish America: (English) The areas of the New World under Spanish control. From the 16th to 18th centuries, Spanish America comprised most of South America (except Portuguese-held Brazil), the Caribbean, Central America, and southern and western North America. back to text
	Viceregal: (English) Pertaining to the Viceroyalty, or the period during which Spanish America was a colonial subject, divided into viceroyalties. back to text
	Viceroy: (English) The head of the largest administrative district (a viceroyalty) established by the Spanish crown in her colonies, second in power only to the king. back to text

View full glossary