Author Description

This bilingual edition focuses on the heritage of painting in colonial Quito with new research and new photography of previously unpublished paintings. -- Publisher's website. "The Art of Painting in Colonial Quito is an exquisite catalogue that carefully documents the rich, diverse variety of colonial works produced for Ecuador's capital.... Its strength... lies in its visual character: it is filled with beautiful, full-page color reproductions and details of more than 100 works. In addition, the catalogue entries feature carefully prepared text by an international team of art historians who describe the works, contextualize them, and clarify some of their iconographies and their meanings. To extend its appeal and reach, the book features text in both English and Spanish. Summing up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through researchers/faculty; general readers." L. E. Carranza, Choice. "The Art of Painting in Colonial Quito presents a 'virtual' catalogue of viceregal-era paintings in the Ecuadorian capital of Quito, a center of the Spanish colonial empire in South America. The historical range of the catalogue spans roughly the years 1590-1810. Iconographical discussion in the entries is exemplary, as is the historiographical section in the introductory essay, particularly in the frank discussion of the historical role of nationalism in the scholarship of South American art. The book's photography is its main strength, and places it at the forefront of the field of colonial South American art." Donna L. Pierce, Frederick and Jan Mayer Curator of Spanish Colonial Art, Head of New World Department, Denver Art Museum. "Although a number of comprehensive examinations of Quitenan architecture and sculpture have been undertaken in recent years, the art of painting has enjoyed no comparable broad, systematic study since the 1991 publication of Jose Gabriel Navarro's La pintura en el Ecuador del XVI al XIX. The Art of Painting in Colonial Quito is therefore an extremely welcome and indeed overdue contribution to this important but relatively neglected area of colonial Latin American painting. The 'virtual catalogue' offered in this volume is a novel approach that unites a range of works that would be virtually impossible to bring physically together, each with corresponding scholarly entries and stunning photographs, to tell the story of colonial Quitenan painting in a manner that is comprehensive, deeply researched, and visually compelling. In many ways, the photographs are the stars of the show: they are exquisitely executed and the vast majority depict works that have never before been published--paintings long hidden away in cloistered convents, museum storage, or private collections." Susan Verdi Webster, Jane W. Mahoney Professor of Art History and American Studies, College of William and Mary.