Pre-1600: The Arts: Overview

Colonial Cultural Contact. During the age of discovery, from 1492 to 1600, European explorers, traders, and religious dissenters ventured to the so-called New World. As a result the cultures of Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia experienced sustained contact with each other for the first time. The encounters of these different worlds produced not only new cultures, races, and political structures but also new art and architectural forms. These colonial works of art, which fulfilled both practical and creative functions, illuminated European colonial ideologies as well as the experiences of colonizers and indigenous people in what is now the United States. In short, colonial artworks in the Americas are unique visual documents of the age of exploration and colonization.

European Art. European explorers and settlers brought a variety of artistic styles to the New World during the age of discovery. In Europe the period from 1492 to 1600 witnessed the Renaissance, a self-conscious return to the classical values of Greece and Rome. Various artistic advances occurred during this period, including the refinement of mathematical perspective systems, the perfection of the representation of human anatomy, and the development of classical architectural forms such as the column, pediment, and dome. Armed with these new technical and stylistic advances artists attempted to represent realistically the world around them. In addition to Renaissance modes, Europeans imported various other styles to the Americas. Spanish art served as a particularly rich source of artistic ideas. Indeed Spanish art was the syncretic product of centuries of cultural mingling between Christians, Muslims, and Jews in Spain. Spanish artistic styles that transferred to America included Medieval, Romanesque, and even Islamic styles. In contrast to Renaissance art, which attempted to re-create the appearance of the real world, these other Spanish approaches appeared more abstract and symbolic. In place of realistic representation they often favored nonfigural forms such as interlace and geometric designs. These styles traveled directly from Europe to North America or arrived from Mexico, where they had acquired additional indigenous or African influences.

Native American Art. During the period of European contact North America was home to about one thousand different tribes. The first European-indigenous contact occurred along the Atlantic Coast in the sixteenth century, followed by encounters in the southwestern United States in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and in the Great Lakes region in the seventeenth century. Relations between colonizers and natives were at times peaceful, and some Native Americans eagerly sought trade with Europeans. At other times, of course, European-indigenous relations were hostile and destructive. Eventually European colonists usurped native land, pushing the indigenous population west. Few Native American artifacts survive from the early years of colonial contact. With the exception of pottery most were made of perishable materials. Furthermore, because of the functional nature of many objects in native society, Indians did not take special measures to preserve them. In fact, no word comparable to “art” in the Western European sense exists in any native North American language.

Permanent Settlements. Initial Northern European excursions to the Americas were primarily for trading purposes or to escape religious persecution in Europe. With few exceptions Northern Europeans expressed little interest in indigenous cultures, chose to live in separate and isolated settlements, and rejected intermarriage. In contrast the Spanish arrived in the Americas practicing a policy of settling among, learning about, and intermarrying with the indigenous populations. They were not only searching for riches and new lands to govern but also seeking to convert the indigenous peoples to Catholicism. As a result the Spanish built mission complexes and attempted to establish permanent settlements amongst the native populations, in sharp contrast to French, English, and Dutch approaches to colonialism in the New World. Monumental architecture and art became important by-products of Spanish and later French colonization and conversion. Indeed art acquired a vital role in Spanish and French Catholic missionary enterprises. In contrast to Protestantism, Judaism, or Islam, which all emphasized text over image, the visual arts were central to Catholic culture. Not surprisingly the image served as the major means of Catholic conversion in the New World.

Hybrid Artistic Styles. Colonial contact forever changed European, indigenous, and African art. New artistic styles emerged that combined traits of both the mother countries and the colonized peoples. These new syncretic or hybrid colonial styles testified to the act of colonialism. Such hybrid styles enjoyed especially high visibility in areas of Spanish colonization. To facilitate conversion Spanish missionary friars often encouraged the combining of native and Spanish art forms and techniques in the creation of new Catholic art. Specifically Franciscan missionaries, the order responsible for proselytizing the Spanish frontier regions of New Mexico, Texas, California, and parts of Arizona, facilitated the creation of hybrid Indo-Christian art and architecture.