Carved Pilaster from Our Lady of Guadalupe
Object Label
These Spanish church columns portend the culture clash between indigenous people and Spanish missionaries in the Americas. The Spanish were the first Europeans to establish successful towns in the Americas, building missions in Saint Augustine, Florida, in 1565 and Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1609. The Spanish crown attempted to establish dominance over the Native pueblos, igniting tumultuous decades of conflict throughout the seventeenth century.
These columns, originally painted, were created by the Spanish artist Bernardo Miera y Pacheco and made to flank the altar of the Catholic church in Old Zuni Pueblo. They are carved in the Spanish estípe style, smaller at the bottom than at the top and covered with low-relief designs of angels and European flowers.
For their new Catholic church at Zuni Pueblo, indigenous people chose which European religious traditions and styles to incorporate into their own ancient customs. Today, the church walls are painted with large murals of sacred Kachina dancers, and the Christian cross above the altar is decorated with local flora and fauna.
Caption
Attributed to Bernardo Miera y Pacheco; A:shiwi (Zuni Pueblo). Carved Pilaster from Our Lady of Guadalupe, 1701–1800. Wood, pigments, 100 3/4 x 14 in. (256.0 x 36.0 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Expedition 1904, Museum Collection Fund, 04.297.5144. Creative Commons-BY
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Title
Carved Pilaster from Our Lady of Guadalupe
Date
1701–1800
Medium
Wood, pigments
Classification
Dimensions
100 3/4 x 14 in. (256.0 x 36.0 cm)
Credit Line
Museum Expedition 1904, Museum Collection Fund
Accession Number
04.297.5144
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
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Frequent Art Questions
The two carved Pilasters on display in the same room, does the museum maintain them?
If you are speaking about the Zuni Carved Pilasters from Our Lady of Guadalupe, yes, we have a wonderful conservation team at the museum that monitors those pieces to make sure the wood is kept at just the right temperature and humidity so that they do not crack or warp.Yes - thank you. Is anything applied to pieces to preserve them?Another good question! I don't have any notes in our files about preservatives (although that was a common practice in early museum collecting that has now stopped because conservators now know the damage it can do after many years--applying chemicals a bug deterent for example).We have evidence, however, that they were originally gessoed and polychromed. I find those pieces fascinating for the way that they incorporate Indigenous imagery/forms with the catholic iconography.Tell me more.
These are "estípite columns", which are widest in the middle of the shaft and narrower at the base and capital. This style became popular in southern Spain around 1700.The ruined church of Our Lady of Guadalupe was a landmark in Zuni culture. One of the museum's early curators, Stewart Culin, first heard about them in 1902, and in 1904 succeeded in purchasing all four pilasters when he discovered they were no longer in use inside the church.The Zuni Pueblo is located in the New Mexico and dates back thousands of year.
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