Holy Organ or Unholy Idol? Forming a History of the Sacred Heart in New Spain

In the eighteenth century, Novohispanic painters produced some of the most innovative and visually complex images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. While they are based in part on European printed frontispieces of books about Christ's heart, the paintings are not mere copies or derivatives of Europ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Colonial Latin American review 2014-09, Vol.23 (3), p.320-359
Main Author: Kilroy-Ewbank, Lauren G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
baroque Catholicism
Bourbon reforms
Jesuits
religious painting
the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Viceroyalty of New Spain
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Summary:In the eighteenth century, Novohispanic painters produced some of the most innovative and visually complex images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. While they are based in part on European printed frontispieces of books about Christ's heart, the paintings are not mere copies or derivatives of European artworks. This article explores the reasons for the particular pictorial strategies of Novohispanic paintings of the Sacred Heart. I argue that the visual strategies employed by Novohispanic artists were intended to argue in support of the legitimacy and historicity of the cult of the Sacred Heart; the cult was under attack in the eighteenth century for, among other reasons, being too new and thus lacking historical roots, making it potentially heretical and apocryphal. Novohispanic depictions, like religious texts produced to defend the Sacred Heart, champion the cult, thereby attempting to shape perception through the power of the images.
ISSN:1060-9164
1466-1802
DOI:10.1080/10609164.2014.972698