Painted in Colonial Mexico A Set of Seventeen

The history of Mexico covers a period of more than three millennia. First populated more than 13,000 years ago, the territory had a complex indigenous civilization before being conquered by the Spaniards in the 16th century. With the Spaniards absorbing the native people into Spain’s vast colonial empire, Mexico’s long-established Mesoamerican civilization became fused with the European culture.1

During the 16th century, European artists immigrated to Mexico to decorate newly established churches and complete artistic commissions. By the 17th century, a new generation of artists born in the Americas began to dominate the scene. Painters developed their own pictorial styles that reflected the changing cultural climate. The 18th century led to a period of artistic grandeur as local schools of painting were consolidated, new iconographies were invented, and artists began to group themselves into academies (Katzew, 2017, 16). Mexican artists still followed what was happening in Europe. The works of leading Italian and French painters, among others, became known to them through engravings (prints), copies and written accounts. Hispanic artists copied prints accurately or took specific figures which they used in new contexts, altering their meaning and interpretation (Mues Orts, 2017: 63-67). In Spanish colonial art, copying was not considered as lesser art, but more as ‘The Art of Two Artists’ (Katzew, 2017: 89-96).

One of the great Mexican painters of the second half of the 18th century was Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz (1713-1772). A mestizo, according to the system of racial classification of the time - that is having a Spanish and a native American parent - born in 1713 in San Miguel de Allende (Guanajuato). At the age of sixteen, he moved from his native hometown to Mexico City, and apprenticed with Jose de Ibarra (1685-1756), the most important artist of his generation (Katzew, 2017: 264).

Morlete Ruiz was a director of a group of Mexican artists, who in the 1750s worked together to elevate the painting profession and receive royal support for an academy they established (Katzew, 2017: 89). Being part of the academy gave Morlete Ruiz a place among the Spanish elite in Mexico. Both the Viceroy Carlos Francisco De Croix, Marquis of Croix (1699-1786) and Viceroy Antonio Maria de Bucareli y Ursúa (1717-1779) commissioned work from him.

The Malta connection

Carlos Francisco De Croix was a Spanish General and Viceroy of Mexico between 1766 and 1771. He turned over his office to Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa in September 1771 and returned to Spain. Fra Antonio María de

Bucareli y Ursúa, was a Spanish military officer, Governor of Cuba, and Viceroy of Mexico between 1771 and 1779. He was also Knight of Justice of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John.

In Bucareli y Ursúa’s probate inventory of 1779, a set of seventeen paintings showing ports of France and two paintings showing scenes from Mexico, complete with gilded frames, all [valued at] 1,600 pesos, were listed among his belongings. This inventory most likely corresponds to a collection of paintings attributed to Morlete Ruiz which are found in Malta. It is plausible that after Bucareli y Ursua’s death, the Order inherited these paintings which were shipped across the Atlantic to the Order’s headquarters, that is Malta, were they have remained ever since.

This set of seventeen paintings, depicted between 1769 and 1772, is located between San Anton Palace in Attard and Verdala Palace in Buskett, limits of Siġġiewi. All the paintings are of similar size, approximately 152.5 by 99cm, and they all have similar gilded decorative frames, suggesting they were meant as a set. Twelve of the paintings show ports of France based on engravings after paintings by Claude Joseph Vernet (1714-1789). Another three show scenes of Florence based on engravings after drawings by Giuseppe Zocchi (circa 17111767). The last two paintings are original paintings of Mexico City.

It is unlikely that Bucareli y Ursúa commissioned these paintings. The paintings date from 1769, that is before Bucareli y Ursúa arrived in Mexico. Morlete Ruiz must have started painting the set earlier and completed it after Bucareli y Ursúa’s arrival. It is possible that these paintings were intended for a European market. In the 18th century, artists in New Spain often inscribed the mention of Mexico as the place of origin on works bound for Europe, as a sign of pride in their artistic tradition. Whatever the circumstances, Bucareli y Ursúa must have acquired this set of paintings, as is attested in his probate inventory. Katzew suggests the possibility that Bucareli y Ursúa asked Morlete Ruiz to add the last view, Mexico City’s Plaza del Volador, which he completed in 1772, the year of his death. (Katzew, 2017: 92). depicting ports of France. These paintings were commissioned for King Louis XV by Abel-François Poisson (1727-1781), Marquis of Marigny, director general of the King’s buildings. The paintings were intended to document and promote French commerce and naval services. In his superbly executed paintings, Vernet emphasized the country’s economic prosperity by featuring the ports as the locus of trade, regional and social diversity, and marine proficiency.

Ports of France

Between 1754 and 1765 the French artist Vernet produced a series of fifteen paintings

With the goal of making the paintings more broadly known across France and internationally, the Marquis of Marigny asked Charles Nicolas Cochine and Jacques Philippe Le Bas, to create a series of prints after them. Between 1758 and 1767, Cochin and Le Bas worked directly from the paintings, employing a mirror to render the images in the correct orientation and capture the rich details.

Morlete Ruiz painted a very accurate representation of Vernet’s paintings. However, the colours differ from Vernet’s paintings.This demonstrates that Morlete Ruiz based his painting on the prints and not the original paintings. Also, to note is the inscription in the lower part of Morlete Ruiz’s paintings. It translates in Spanish almost verbatim the inscriptions in the Cochin and Le Bas etchings, stating the location of the port being depicted and that the paintings are copies based on paintings by Claude Joseph Vernet. It also indicates that they were produced in Mexico by Morlete Ruiz from a print and the manufacturing date.

What is noteworthy is that Morlete Ruiz had access to the prints barely two years after they were completed. Perhaps Marquis of Croix, of whom Morlete Ruiz created a portrait for the viceregal palace, who was of French origin, brought with him to Mexico a suite of the freshly minted prints after Vernet’s set (Katzew, 2017: 91). By the time Marquis of Croix arrived in Mexico, only twelve prints were issued, therefore, it seems logical to conclude that Morlete Ruiz’s collection in Malta is complete.

Scenes of Florence

While he was painting the ports of France, Morlete Ruiz also produced at least three paintings showing vedute (views) of Florence, modeled after compositions by the Italian artist Giuseppe Zocchi. As stated in an inscription, in the lower part of these paintings, they were painted in Mexico based on lithograph prints.

Zocchi was an Italian painter and printmaker, active in Florence, and best known for his vedute of the city. Zocchi’s patron, the Marchese Andrea Gerini (a Florentine aristocrat and art collector), commissioned him to record all the famous Florentine landmarks, which he did in a series of drawings, now in New York’s Pierpont Morgan Library. Zocchi finished the project by the end of 1741, when his compositions were sent off to the best engravers throughout Italy. Zocchi ably produced representations of landscape and architecture as well as important Florentine events, with considerable attention to detail, which makes the series a precious document of 18th-century Florence.

Morlete Ruiz followed the etchings after Zocchi rather closely, same as in the ports of France, with the inscription in the lower part of the paintings translating in Spanish almost accurately the Italian inscriptions on the prints, with the addition that they were painted in Mexico by Morlete Ruiz and the manufacturing date.

Two of the Florentine vedute show Piazzas enlivened by major Florentine events. One shows the Piazza and Basilica di Santa Croce and portrays two main events, Carnival and the Festa del Calcio.2 The origins of carnival in Florence date back to the 15th century.

During carnival people would wear masks and gather in Piazza Santa Croce (which is still one of the main spots of Florence’s Carnival). The painting provides vivid evidence of 18thcentury carnival masks and costumes, some of them quite intriguing. The Festa del Calcio is a traditional football game dating back to the 15th century, a brutal mix of football, rugby and wrestling. It became very popular, especially during Carnival, attracting huge crowds. Gradually the Festa del Calcio became obsolete, the last known match was played in January 1739 in Piazza Santa Croce (Vandeville, 2014, Bresford, 2015). Interestingly Zocchi’s drawing shows the Festa del Calcio in 1738, that is a year before it was discontinued. It is not until the 1930s that it became popular once again, renamed Calcio Storico Fiorentino and fought in medieval costumes in Piazza Santa Croce in June ever since.

The other shows the Piazza and Basilica di Santa Maria Novella with the Festa della Corsa de’ Cocchi. The Corsa de’ Cocchi, also known as Palio dei Cocchi, was a race with horsedrawn carriages similar to Roman chariots. The Corsa de’ Cocchi was set up in the 16th century, the carriages (or cocchi) revolved around two marble obelisks, still present in the piazza to date. The palio was held on 23 June, the eve of the feast of St John the Baptist, patron saint of Florence, a day before the annual final of the Festa del Calcio, until the mid-1800s.

Mexican Plazas

Until 1769, Morlete Ruiz painted mostly portraits and secular paintings (Retana Márquez, 1996: 116-117). The ports of France and Florentine vedute introduced him to a new style of genre paintings. Consequently, he produced the two original paintings View of Plaza Mayor of Mexico City, dated 1770, and View of Plaza del Volador of Mexico City, dated 1772. These Mexican plazas, with their receding perspective, piazzas surrounded by buildings and human activities, to a certain extent, follow Zocchi’s vedute. However, they are seen from a higher vantage point, they show a bird’s-eye view of the respective plazas.

Hamman explains that during the

18th century, there was an increased production of city views of Mexico City (Hamman, 2015: 31). These city views were typically rendered as birds’-eye view and combined two disciplines: art and cartography – the practice of drawing maps (Hamman, 2015: 32-33). This dual quality of both map and landscape can be seen in Morlete Ruiz’s paintings, showing that he was also abreast of his local traditions. The buildings in the respective plazas are numbered. At the bottom of each painting there is a legend, identifying all the important buildings with reference to the numbers on the paintings. Moreover, these paintings are not just city views but also combine human activity. The plazas are populated with figures that represent social diversity, with depictions of both the social elite and ordinary people. Public spaces providing lucid information on 18th-century Mexican portrait of society; this is where all castes and social classes mix.

Morlete Ruiz first painted Plaza Mayor, Mexico City’s main plaza, now the Plaza de la Constitución, also known as the Zócalo. This location has been a gathering place for Mexicans since the Aztec times. The site for many Mexican ceremonies such as the swearing of viceroys, royal proclamations, military parades, Independence ceremonies and religious events. In the distant background, Morlete Ruiz’s shows the distinct profile of the Iztaccihuatl dormant volcano, with its snowy peak. A topographical feature that allows the viewers to situate themselves in relation to Mexico’s regional environ. In the center, there is the Viceregal Palace and to the left the Cathedral. Today Plaza Mayor is still bordered by these important buildings of the colonial era. Since this plaza seated the Viceroyalty of New Spain and the Archbishopric of Mexico, it was the center of political and religious institutions, but it was also the center of Mexico’s economic activity and the residence of social elites in colonial Mexico.

A Viceregal procession, with men on horseback and horse-drawn carriages, is proceeding from the Viceregal Palace towards the Cathedral, establishing a powerful visual connection between State and Church. The Crown Battalion stands guard in the middle, while ordinary people go about their everyday life. To the right, soldiers guard the Parián, an enclosed marketplace, its presence signals the importance of the plaza as a major commercial hub.3 Morlete Ruiz does not show the Baratillo (open market) de la Plaza Mayor, often seen in contemporary paintings of this plaza. Makeshift stalls overrun the plaza over much of the 17th and 18th century. In 1760, the open market was described as extremely disordered and there were several attempts to reform marketplaces throughout Mexico City and to clear Plaza Mayor (Exbalin 2015, 12) (Douglas 2013, 17). While it is possible that Morlete Ruiz painted Plaza Mayor when it was temporarily cleared, it is also plausible that he chose to omit the Baratillo to represent a more orderly view of the city.

Two years later, Morlete Ruiz painted another important square in colonial Mexico, Plaza del Volador, a square located southeast of Plaza Mayor. The Viceregal Palace, whose façade is in Plaza Mayor, had an exterior side in the former Plaza del Volador. The space once occupied by the Plaza del Volador is currently occupied by the Supreme Court of Justice. During the Colonial period, the square had many uses, it was the center of key public ceremonies, hosting a range of festivities, such as bull fighting, and the ritual ceremony of the Voladores (rite of flying), to which the plaza owes its name. But when it was not being used for such events, the square became a big flea market. It was known as a place where people from all racial and social backgrounds commingled, and where all sorts of crimes occurred. The composition, however, shows an orderly market with an abundance of fruits and vegetables. In the very forefront of the painting there is the Real Acquia (Royal Canal), the waterway which supplied daily needs to the center of the city. The waterway is jam-packed with canoes loaded with fruit and vegetables. Today, instead of the Royal Canal there is Corregidora Street. Depicted to the left, there is the Royal and Pontifical University, of which today only the street that bears its name remains.

Both the plaza Mayor and the plaza del Volador represent idealized views of Mexico City, systematized, peaceful and prolific. Katzew explains that “by depicting New Spain in its best light, the works convey a particular message about life in viceroyalty to their intended European audience, fulfilling a propagandistic function akin to that of Vernet’s set” (Katzew, 2017: 96).

This research was carried out during the conservation restoration treatment of this set of seventeen paintings, unique to Malta, in collaboration with LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art). The conservation work was undertaken by Heritage Malta over a span of four years.

Notes and References

1 Mexico was part of the Spanish Empire between 1521 and 1821.

2 In Morlete Ruiz’s painting, one can see the original brick façade of the Basilica di Santa Croce before the 1860s neo-Gothic marble façade by Jewish architect Niccolo Matas.

3 Built between 1695 and 1700, the Parián, was used as a set of shops to warehouse and sell products brought by galleons from Europe and Asia.

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