#enconchado

This remarkable enconchado, or shell inlay, painting comes from an artistic tradition that flourished in Mexico from 1650 to 1750. Inspired by Asian trade goods, painters seamlessly incorporated pieces of mother-of-pearl into their compositions, often extending the technique onto the frame. The reflective qualities of the mother-of-pearl, especially when lit by candlelight, gave these works unparalleled luminosity. San Diego de Alcalá (around 1400–63) was a Spanish lay brother of the Franciscan order and is depicted here within his monastery’s walled garden. Works like this one, rare and jewel-like, represent a true synthesis of the arts and cultures of Mexico, Asia, and Europe.

In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month (Sep 15—Oct 15), the Brooklyn Museum is pleased to feature a work each week that honors the heritage and cultures of Hispanic and Latin Americans living in the United States. These works, which are on display in various galleries of the museum, relate to ancient cultures from which many Hispanic Americans trace their ancestry or to artisans of the Spanish Colonial era whose creativity reflects an intermingling of indigenous and European traditions. The works presented pay homage to three of the Latin American countries that celebrate the anniversary of their independence this month: Costa Rica, Guatemala and Mexico.

This biombo enconchado is the only known work to combine the two elite Mexican genres of biombos (folding screens) and tableros de concha nácar y pintura (shell-inlay paintings later known as enconchados). Commissioned in Mexico City by the viceroy of New Spain, it was most likely displayed in Mexico’s viceregal palace, where it would have divided a ceremonial state room from a more intimate sitting room. The work originally included six additional panels, which are now in Mexico.

Its principal side depicts scenes from the epic Hapsburg-Ottoman conflicts known as the Great Turkish War (1683-99); in stark contrast, an elegant deer, boar, and chamois hunt appear on the reverse. These paintings were based on imported European prints after drawings and tapestries produced in Antwerp, Versailles, and Florence in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As an elite object painted in Mexico City by local artists after European prints in a Japanese-inspired format (the byōbu or folding screen), this biombo enconchado reflects New Spain’s prime geographic position at the center of the Pacific and Atlantic trade routes and the viceroyalty’s great wealth at the dawn of the eighteenth century.

This luminescent work, known as an enconchado, is made with inlaid mother-of-pearl which is then painted over. Invented in Mexico and inspired by imported decorative arts from eastern Asia, the different areas of shell inlay and painted surface would have flickered and glowed in candlelight.