Publications by Catherine Burdick
Autoctonia: Revista ciencias sociales y historia , 2023
In the modern era, the Laws of the Indies required that Catholic bishops assigned to a post in th... more In the modern era, the Laws of the Indies required that Catholic bishops assigned to a post in the Spanish Americas submit an inventory of the personal belongings to be relocated with them. In conformance with this mandate, in the year prior to taking charge of the diocese of Santiago de Chile in 1708, don Luis Francisco Romero's personal items were documented in preparation for their shipment from Cusco. This registry, which includes Romero's collection of artworks, is maintained in the General Archive of the Indies in Seville. For the duration of Romero's decade-long tenure in Santiago, his art collection was among the most illustrious in all of Chile, functioning as an identifying element of his social and professional status. This study seeks to identify the contents of this collection, and to understand the role this collection played in the larger circulation of artworks not only between Cusco and Santiago, but also among Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Finally, and uniting the focal themes of art, status, and circulation, the study reveals that Romero inherited works from the estate of Manuel de Mollinedo y Angulo, who served as archbishop of Cusco from 1673 until his death in 1699.
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Historia 396, 2021
This study examines eighteenth-century botanical illustrations of endemic Chilean flora within th... more This study examines eighteenth-century botanical illustrations of endemic Chilean flora within the colonial context of the imperial networks that transferred American plants and their images to Europe. To this end, we focus on early illustrations of three Chilean botanical species: the copihue, the puya and the quillay. We consider the botanical images of these species produced under the expeditions of Louis Feuillée (1707-1711) and Hipólito Ruiz y José Pavón (1777-1788) as efficient substitutes for the plants they represent. We find that these illustrations fulfilled the doubled necessities of eighteenthcentury Imperialism, that is, to identify useful new plants and to integrate them within a universal system of botany. We conclude that these considerations were given uneven weight, as artistic conventions for the botanical illustrations under study privileged scientific aspects over more lucrative endeavors.
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Arts, 2021
There exists a consensus in academic literature regarding the centrality of engraved prototypes f... more There exists a consensus in academic literature regarding the centrality of engraved prototypes for the production of colonial paintings in the Spanish Americas. In Peru, these artistic models were written into legal contracts between painters and clients. An examination of the notarial contracts produced in Cusco from 1650 to 1700 suggests that prototypes in a variety of formats were not only central to artistic professional practice, but that adherence to their images may have provided one motive for entering into such agreements. This study leans upon the centrality of Flemish print sources to confirm the attribution of a partial canvas at the Pinacoteca Universidad de Concepción, Chile as an episode of the series on the life of Diego de Alcalá (c. 1710) in Santiago, Chile. Commissioned from Cusco by the Franciscans of Santiago, the status of the hagiographic cycle as the most extensive ever produced on the subject of this missionary saint dictates that a multiplicity of sources was necessary for its creation. By identifying two engravings that served as its models, this study recovers the subject of this painting as a miracle that sustained Diego during an arduous journey.
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The Senses and Society 15.2, 2020
The present essay identifies the smellscapes of colonial and early Republican Chile through the r... more The present essay identifies the smellscapes of colonial and early Republican Chile through the reconstruction of botanical aromas in private urban gardens. Using archival documents in the Chilean National Archives, the Franciscan Archives of Chile, the Judicial Archives of San Juan Province and the Historical Archives of Mendoza we identify the botanical contents of enclosed gardens and orchards in upper-class homes. In contrast to previous studies that have linked the bad odors of early modern Latin America to infirmity and poverty, our purpose is to consider the place of pleasant aromas as part of a garden typology in which the garden is a reconstruction of paradise. Through our analysis of inventories and appraisals we identify continuities in botanical contents and structure between private Chilean gardens and prototypes in Moorish Spain. Our data confirms that the aromas of roses, jasmine, and citrus were a feature of the elite Chilean garden alongside native plants, and the resulting pleasant sensorial experiences imparted a paradisiacal ideal adapted from Moorish-Spanish antecedents. Ultimately, we interpret the fragrances of such private gardens as performances of power that gave presence to the hidden sites where elite Chilean networks were forged, and thus served as ephemeral signals of social exclusivity.
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Hispanic American Research Review, 2019
This study inserts Santiago, Chile, into contemporary discussions of colonial Latin America by re... more This study inserts Santiago, Chile, into contemporary discussions of colonial Latin America by reading two Jesuit documents—a map and a letter—created prior to and following the devastating earthquake of 1647, respectively. Alonso de Ovalle's Prospectiva y planta de la ciudad de Santiago (1646) presents an urban paradise in accordance with Spanish and Catholic ideals, a New World Jerusalem. This depiction is juxtaposed with a letter by Juan González Chaparro that describes post-earthquake Santiago as “ruined at the powerful hand of the Almighty.” Focusing on the 1647 earthquake's religious dimensions and perceived causes, the study concludes that the religious authorities of Santiago stand out in the colonial Spanish Americas for assigning fault for such a disaster to their city's elites rather than to its underclasses.
Hispanic American Historical Review (2019) 99 (4): 589-618.
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Estudios Patrimoniales, 2018
ISBN 978-956-14-2365-7
Ed. José de Nordenflycht Concha, Santiago: Ediciones UC, 2018
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In: Visualizing Sensuous Suffering and Affective Pain in Early Modern Europe and the Spanish Americas, 2018
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Colonial Latin American Review, 2017
This art historical study analyzes images of colonial-era medicinal botanicals in South America w... more This art historical study analyzes images of colonial-era medicinal botanicals in South America within a little known seventeenth-century map, the Tabula geographica regni Chile, and proposes that these renderings were central to a visual program by which their author Alonso de Ovalle attempted to construct a positive image of his homeland before the Spanish Crown. These renderings of specific Chilean plants and their expressed medicinal applications are examined in relation to the rise of materia medica for commerce in southern Europe and the Spanish interest to locate botanical medicines for profit. This approach allows us to consider pre-Linnaean botanical renderings as persuasive documents, as purveyors of indigenous knowledge, and as instruments of negotiation (prospecting for new commercial goods) for the advancement of criollo agendas. Finally, looking at Ovalle's images of Chilean medicinal botanicals in comparison with later documents demonstrates that while early pictured conveyances across the Atlantic formulated conceptions of American nature, the transference of actual specimens to Europe involved their adaptation for new functions and uses.
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Although captive images have been examined for the Classic Maya, we lack a thorough understanding... more Although captive images have been examined for the Classic Maya, we lack a thorough understanding of depicted captives as a pictorial motif. Furthermore, the convention of ‘tagging’ Late Classic Maya captive sculptures with identifying texts was understood a century ago, yet the ways in which these scripts functioned beyond the role of label are not well known. This layering of identifying texts onto captive figures presents interesting avenues of scholarly inquiry for understanding relationships among ancient Maya texts, figural images, and actual bodies. In this article I explore captive iconography and then suggest that the captive ‘tagging’ convention is related to the tagging of possessed objects. The artistic tendency toward ‘tagging’ the thigh with more frequency than other bodily regions suggests a secondary meaning for such markings, and I propose that these ‘tags’ alluded to the post-sacrifice practice of removing the femur as a war trophy.
Please contact the author at catherineel@yahoo.com for a copy.
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This Spanish-language article approaches the object, Dirt Theory, and trans-Atlantic material exc... more This Spanish-language article approaches the object, Dirt Theory, and trans-Atlantic material exchange in the early modern world through the examination of a fascinating Mapuche (Chile) vessel embedded with decorative pieces of Blue Willow ceramics.
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Catalog essay for the exhibition Adoracion en Los Andes: Afectos en torno al niño (Colleccion Joa... more Catalog essay for the exhibition Adoracion en Los Andes: Afectos en torno al niño (Colleccion Joaquin Gandarillas Infante Arte Colonial americano), 2015
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Contemporary Chilean Artists by Catherine Burdick
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On-line Publications and Contributions by Catherine Burdick
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Books by Catherine Burdick
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Publications by Catherine Burdick
Hispanic American Historical Review (2019) 99 (4): 589-618.
Please contact the author at catherineel@yahoo.com for a copy.
Contemporary Chilean Artists by Catherine Burdick
On-line Publications and Contributions by Catherine Burdick
Books by Catherine Burdick
Hispanic American Historical Review (2019) 99 (4): 589-618.
Please contact the author at catherineel@yahoo.com for a copy.