Syncretism: Fusion or Confusion? An Exploration of Commissioned Colonial Art from 1500-1800s by SOPHIA KOO

Curator Statement and Bibliography

svkoo — 2025-07-06 19:42:01 UTC

This exhibition explores the cultural perception of the supernatural as interpreted through mythology and iconography, particularly through the lens of syncretism. Syncretism is both a visual object and a political phenomenon in colonial art defined by the gradual blend of distinct religious, cultural, or philosophical beliefs into hybrid forms. I am fascinated by how symbols of mythological deities and spiritual forces appear when blending under dominant religious structures, transcending cultural boundaries. Within the context of New World colonialism, syncretism highlights histories of resistance and adaptation. In colonized regions, particularly under Catholic rule, Indigenous and African spiritual practices were masked or merged with Christian iconography. This blend illustrates how religion and culture often seek to express a shared, ambiguous spiritual truth: that human beings long to understand forces beyond our material existence through story, image, and ritual.

In addition to the Protestant Reformation in 1517, the Catholic Church’s authority over Europe began to wane. The “discovery” of the New World in 1492 further disrupted the Church’s authority, as the existence of an entire continent unmentioned in the Holy Scriptures challenged the foundation of Christianity (Mignolo, p. 275). In response, the papacy increased its commissioning of religious artwork (particularly between the 1500s and 1800s) as visual propaganda to reinforce Catholic doctrine and presence. However, art is slow to produce and deeply rooted in local culture, so a distinct syncretic spirit emerged within these works. This allowed indigenous and African beliefs to subtly endure beneath the surface of dominant Christian iconography in the Americas.

This exhibition will focus on the art commissioned by colonial powers, especially the Catholic Church, that adopted or absorbed native spiritual elements in the Americas. Many of these works were then circulated back to Europe through colonial trade networks, including transatlantic and Pacific routes, where they served as commodities and imperial soft power tools. For instance, artworks in Spanish America, such as The Mass of St. Gregory and Our Lady of Guadalupe, incorporate indigenous symbols and methods while serving as tools of religious conversion and propaganda. This exhibit will also highlight symbols of Afro-Atlantic spiritual practices, which revere West African deities and perpetuate practices disguised as Catholic saints and holidays, as depicted in the work Three Kings Day in Havana. However, crediting artists may be a challenge as have been erased with time (along with their autonomy and rights), and different cultures view art as a daily part of life, not necessarily something to separate and revere in a museum and gain notoriety from, as an indigenous artist may seek to represent their culture above individual authorship. These works' visual and symbolic layering reveals resistance to cultural erasure and the enduring power of ancestral belief. This curation aims to show that syncretic art is not an equal derivative and is proof of the persistence of spirit under the weight of an empire.

Bibliography

Bailey, Gauvin Alexander, et al. The Colonial Andes: Tapestries and Silverwork, 1530–1830. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004. https://search.worldcat.org/title/85791456.

Bastos, Laura. “Catholicism in the Americas.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History. Oxford University Press, 2019. https://oxfordre.com/latinamericanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.001.0001/acrefore-9780199366439-e-710.

Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Our Lady of Guadalupe.” Britannica. Accessed July 6, 2025. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Our-Lady-of-Guadalupe-patron-saint-of-Mexico.

Julião, Carlos. Black Kings and Queens Festival. Last quarter of the 18th century. Watercolor on paper. In Riscos illuminados de figurinhos de brancos e negros dos uzos do Rio de Janeiro e Serro do Frio, Iconografia, C.I.2.8. Fundação Biblioteca Nacional, Rio de Janeiro.

Mignolo, Walter. The Darker Side of the Renaissance: Literacy, Territoriality, and Colonization. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995. https://archive.org/details/darkersideofrena0000mign/page/54/mode/2up

Museo Larco. “Syncretism.” Museo Larco. Accessed July 6, 2025. https://www.museolarco.org/en/exhibition/permanent-exhibition/online-exhibition/syncretism/.

Museo Larco. “Virgin of Candelaria.” Museo Larco. Accessed July 6, 2025. https://www.museolarco.org/en/exhibition/permanent-exhibition/online-exhibition/syncretism/virgin-of-candelaria/.

Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Cuba). “Víctor Patricio Landaluze, Día de Reyes en la Habana.” Accessed July 13, 2025. https://www.bellasartes.co.cu/obra/victor-patricio-landaluze-dia-de-reyes-en-la-habana.

Smarthistory. “African Religious Culture in the Atlantic World.” Smarthistory. Accessed July 6, 2025. https://smarthistory.org/african-religious-culture-in-the-atlantic-world/.

Smarthistory. “Featherworks.” Smarthistory. Accessed July 6, 2025. https://smarthistory.org/featherworks/.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “La Orana Maria.” The Met Collection. Accessed July 6, 2025. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/438821.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Mass of Saint Gregory.” The Met Collection. Accessed 13 July 2025. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/722118.

Our Lady of Guadalupe

svkoo — 2025-07-06 20:08:22 UTC

This iconic representation of the Virgin Mary is not only a symbol of Mexican Catholic devotion but also an insightful example of syncretism between Aztec cosmology and Christian imagery. Painted with mestizo features and framed by golden rays evoking the Aztec sun god Tonatiuh, the Virgin stands atop a crescent moon and cloak of turquoise, both sacred symbols of divinity in indigenous iconography. It is important to note that Mary is placed above the sun god iconography, asserting Catholic dominance.

Virgen de la Candelaria

svkoo — 2025-07-06 20:09:19 UTC

This lavish oil painting, reflective of Spanish colonial aesthetics, alludes to subtle indigenous influences beneath its ornate Catholic surface. The subject’s gown forms a bloated pyramidal silhouette reminiscent of the sacred Apu mountains, worshipped as gods by the Andean people. The triangular composition echoes the Catholic Holy Trinity and the divine triads of Incan mythology. This Cuzco School work shows how native symbolism persisted within imposed European artistic structures, reinforcing indigenous sacred geography within colonial theology, utilized for strategic purposes of indoctrination while also permitting native practices to persist.

The Mass of St. Gregory

svkoo — 2025-07-06 20:10:19 UTC

Commissioned shortly after the Spanish conquest and created using traditional featherwork, this glimmering piece bridges Catholic ritual with Nahua spiritual craftsmanship. Intended as a gift to Pope Paul III (who briefly defended indigenous rights), the artwork visually affirms European liturgy while preserving the feather mosaic's tactile, sacred practice. Its theft, motivated by primitivism and rediscovery centuries later, mirrors the colonial erasure of native artisanship, even as the work remains a colorful testimony to spiritual and artistic resilience today.

Black Woman and Child (c. 1650)

svkoo — 2025-07-11 18:16:04 UTC

Painted by Dutch artist Albert Eckhout during his colonial stay in Brazil, this portrait reflects Baroque formalism and colonial fantasy. The subject is a woman of African descent adorned with European jewelry, a feathered hat, and bare breasts. The posing symbolizes the overlap of objectification and reverence. While intended as ethnographic propaganda, the maternal composition and direct gaze evoke the Madonna and Child. This work complicates our understanding of power, identity, and the colonial desire to “know” through visual possession.

La Orana Maria

svkoo — 2025-07-11 18:16:23 UTC

In this later example of primitivist syncretism, French artist Paul Gauguin reimagines the Virgin Mary and Christ as Tahitian figures in a lush tropical landscape. Though intended as a colonial fantasy of “pure” spirituality, the painting highlights the cultural imposition of Christianity on native Tahitian belief. Gauguin participates in syncretism through the exoticizing lens of Western modernism by merging Biblical iconography with a Polynesian setting and form. His romanticization echoes the colonial impulse to simplify and possess indigenous spirituality.

Three Kings Day in Havana

svkoo — 2025-07-11 18:16:40 UTC

Depicting Havana’s Epiphany celebrations, this vibrant scene reveals how enslaved Africans momentarily reclaimed public space through ritual. On January 6, enslaved Africans were permitted by the colony to dance, sing, and worship in honor of the Three Kings, a Catholic feast reinterpreted through African spiritual rhythms and costuming. Landaluze’s painting, while rendered from a colonial perspective, captures a fleeting moment of agency, showing that syncretism can be created through festivity and joy.

Black Kings and Queens Festival

svkoo — 2025-07-11 18:16:59 UTC

The Portuguese Empire commissioned Julião to document colonial Brazil and inadvertently recorded acts of reclamation through his depictions of the Congadas festivals, celebrated on a Catholic feast day in October. These rituals, rooted in the Kingdom of Kongo’s coronation practices, were performed by Afro-Brazilians donning regal European attire to honor ancestral lineages whilst mocking the ruling class in a carnivalesque manner. In this series, women were depicted as central to the festivities, even playing trumpets and drums. Removed from the colonial context, this work shows empowerment through enduring culture: a re-embodying of African sovereignty within restrictive Catholic colonial rule. Juliaos' series of watercolors is one of the few surviving works documenting Black festivities and celebrations within the largest New World culture of slavery.