Colonial Visions: Drama, Art, and Legitimation in Peru and Ecuador

Abstract:

THE VISUAL DISPLAY OF POWER is viewed as a major feature of political domination by scholars of early modern Europe; underscored, in particular, is the use from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries of dramatic and artistic representations in absolutist monarchies. In Hapsburg Spain, John Elliott and Jonathan Brown have highlighted the link between monarchical power and painting and drama in the env iro ns of the cou rt, 1 and Jose Antonio Maravall has placed the development of these arts, geared as they were toward social control, within the context of the growing urbanization of the era.'In contrast, the role of visual imagery in the legitimation of power in the Spanish colonies of the New World has received little atten tion. Yet as offshoots of the Spanish monarchy, coloni al governments in Mexico, Peru, and elsewhere must also have resorted to art and drama to impose values facilitating control and explo it ation. There is, however, an immediate objection to the idea that such artistic legitimations abounded in the colonies. Did not the colonies lack large urban masses to be subjected to social control, audiences for the visual display of power? There are two answers to this objection: first, the coloni es were surprisingly urbanized, and second, town and country were so tightly integrated that rural dwellers too were compelled to witness the productions of urban culture. Hence, even the native Indians active ly participated in art istic legitimations of power. This article explores the role that visual imagery played in the legitimation of colonial power in the Viceroyalty of Peru, and it examines native response to the art and ceremonial dramas …

Año de publicación:

1995

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