BEHIND CLOSED DOORS: ART IN THE SPANISH AMERICAN HOME, 1492-1898

Christopher Jones, Assistant Curator of Exhibitions

Oct 24 — Jan 11, 2015

Museum of Art, Searing Wing

This fall, The Ringling will provide visitors a rare glimpse into the lavish private spaces of the Spanish Colonial world. The Museum will host Behind Closed Doors: Art in the Spanish American Home, 1492–1898, a traveling exhibition organized by the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the Searing Galleries will transform to mimic the layout of a typical elite home from one of the centers of Spanish Colonial power. Viewers will see the sumptuous range of luxury goods that the privileged and powerful of the New World collected and displayed in order to project their status and fashion identities.

I had the pleasure of seeing Behind Closed Doors in Brooklyn last fall, and am excited that we will be bringing such a unique experience to The Ringling. Based on exhaustive scholarly research, the exhibition offers a range of objects grouped as they would have been in the home, allowing us to understand how social spaces were defined and what sorts of messages they communicated. Reception rooms, for example, greeted visitors with conspicuous representations of Spanish and indigenous authority. Staterooms resplendent with finery provided guests with comfort during social functions while adjacent estrados were exclusively feminine spaces where women socialized and entertained. These were often furnished with Oriental carpets, writing desks, and beautiful mahogany tables. We also get a feel for more private and exclusive spaces, such as bedrooms and family chapels, which were defined by the objects displayed and used therein.

Behind Closed Doors provides an innovative perspective on Spanish Colonial culture. Although that era is perhaps most widely known through its exceptional tradition of religious art and iconography, exhibition curator Rich Aste has focused on the Brooklyn Museum’s extensive collection of elite secular objects such as furniture, decorative objects, and portraiture. Further, similar contemporary objects and art works from Colonial North America and Europe are included for comparison, giving us a sense for how styles, techniques, and designs traveled across cultures and were interpreted for local uses and tastes.

Surveying the art in this exhibition, we comprehend Spanish Colonial culture within its global context, at the crossroads of trade routes between Europe and Asia, and at the heart of one of the greatest empires on Earth. Objects like Brooklyn’s recently acquired biombo screen embody this historical reality. The folding screen tradition originated in Japan, but Mexican high society so admired them that local artisans began producing them,