The Print in the Painting

Many Spanish Colonial paintings depicting prints have survived to our day—see, for example, the adjoining painting of Saint Peter by Nicolás Rodríguez Juárez (1667-1734). These paintings reveal a good deal about the use and importance of prints in the Spanish colonies. Some of these paintings have been gathered here.

Judging from these paintings, we can see that prints were attached to the walls of domestic or monastic interiors, serving as aids to private piety--and therefore also as witnesses thereof (Figs. 1-11). Prints were also used in isolated churches or faraway missions that did not have paintings yet (cf. Neuerburg 1985). In this they contrasted with murals and large format paintings displayed at public places of established indoctrination, worship, or contemplation, like schools, churches, or monasteries. Prints were also available loose or bound in books. And could even be borne by angelic or divine creatures (Figs. 5, 6).

Of special interest in this regard are two series of unusual paintings of martyred apostles. One of them is found in the Capilla del Espíritu Santo in San Luis Potosí, México; the other in the Paraninfo Universitario of the Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca. The former shows angels descending as each of the apostles is being martyred. The angel bears a palm of martyrdom, a crown of laurel, and a print bearing the name of the apostle—as if to reassure the martyr that posterity will acknowledge his martyrdom (see here). The other series also contains angels presenting prints—but this time to the viewer, so as to present the martyrs to us as paragons of faith (see here).

But prints did not have only devotional value. Profane woodcuts or engravings could be used as forms of simple ornament (Figs. 12-13). Most importantly for our project, however, prints were used in artists' workshops, where they were both created and displayed (Fig. 14)—and even used actively as models (Fig. 15).

Most of the time, prints  were simply tacked or nailed against walls, where they could scroll or tear (Fig. 9). If frames were used at all, they tended to be simple ones. They were thin and made of wood left unvarnished and unpainted. Occasionally, however, prints were inserted into somewhat more elaborate frames (Fig. 11). They could also be illuminated--sometimes so thoroughly that they passed for actual paintings (see Historia del Arte Colombiano, III, 801ff).