Fri, Oct 23
|Zoom
Martha Egan, Relicarios
A discussion with author Martha Egan; the Rev. Dr. Juan Oliver; Josef Díaz, former curator at the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art; and Dr. Amy Groleau, Curator of Latin American & Caribbean Collections at the Museum of International Folk Art about Relicarios: The Forgotten Jewels of Latin America
Date, Time & Location
Oct 23, 2020, 6:00 PM MDT
Zoom
About the Event
To join us via Zoom, please click here.
Relicarios—finely crafted, bi-faced lockets of gold or silver—are artifacts of the Spanish Colonial era. These exquisite jewels containing devotional imagery protected by glass may include paintings on vellum, nacre, alabaster, copper, or ivory; prints; or miniature sculptures of boxwood, ivory, alabaster, or tagua. Although tons of relics were imported from Europe, particularly by Jesuits, in general only high-status individuals wore relicarios containing relics.
Relicarios attest to colonists’ dedication to their favorite Virgins and saints as well as fealty to church and crown. As powerful amulets they protected wearers in a precarious world. Relicarios reflects forty years of the author’s research, including correspondence and interviews with relicarieros, art historians, curators, collectors, silversmiths, anticuarios, and clergy as well as the author’s collection of several hundred examples.
Photos commissioned from leading art photographers in the Americas were mostly unpublished until this handsome volume.
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