Violence, Tranquility, and Changing Perceptions of Honor: A Close Analysis of Four Casta Paintings in New Spain: 1750-1790
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2015
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Haverford College. Department of History
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Thesis
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Award
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eng
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Open Access
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Abstract
What role does violence play in visual depictions of Black women and Spanish men in late eighteenth century New Spain? This thesis concerns the portrayal of Black women (negra), Spanish men ( espafiol), and their offspring (mulata) throughout four different casta paintings including two calm, tranquil paintings and two violent ones. Casta paintings were produced in the eighteenth century for literate, elite audiences, addressing a growing need for a depiction of a hierarchy of mixed-race people. The members of the elite class commissioned these paintings, so it can be assumed that the artist's depiction of the couple is a representation of the elite class's attitude toward the mixed-race coupling. The presence of tranquil paintings with scenes depicting an organized, controlled couple perhaps signified the artists', and therefore the elites', acceptance towards the existence of this couple, highlighting that individual free will as exemplified through marriage choice was emblematic of the first quarter of the eighteenth century. The peaceful scenes showed acceptance of this couple as an ordered family unit with individuals adhering to their assigned social roles, i.e.: an ornately dressed, elite Spanish man being served by his unadorned Black wife. However, the full effect of the Bourbon Reforms, both social and economic, in the second half of the eighteenth century resulted in an attempt to control and reduce racial mixing as male honor became based on wealth and class instead of virtue. The ways in which disorder was depicted in the violent paintings alluded to the anxieties of Black female/Spanish male as a couple. Concerns arose in the latter half of the eighteenth century due to the increased need to regain social control through honorable households. This change in attitude is demonstrated through three specific visual cues concerning disorder and a lack of honor in the four paintings studied, specifically: the man's hat, the fruit basket, and the presence of insults. An elite anxiety grew as a result of the Reforms targeting social order and adherence to marriage rites, which increased control over the households through a larger focus on paterfamilias: the male head of a household maintaining control and order within his own house. The household served as a microcosm for the larger macrocosm of the family of the nation, thus paterfamilias was how the Crown attempted to maintain control over its subjects. This control was represented through casta paintings. The paintings manifest social anxieties regarding race mixing and improper marriages, as well as the production of mixed-race children. Thus as anxieties concerning the coupling of Black women and Spanish men increased, there was a simultaneous increase in depiction of violence in the casta paintings.