Possibly Laca de los Galgos workshop (Patzcuaro, Mexico, 18th century)

Possibly Laca de los Galgos workshop (Patzcuaro, Mexico, 18th century) Four-leaf screen. Open dimensions: 215 x 212 cm. Closed dimensions: 215 x 53 cm. The screens of New Spain are a mixture of intentions and different places. They are reminiscent in their form of the oriental furniture they evoke, if we think that they were part of the lavish aiuares of the palaces and lords of the Orient, and by their form and use they would have been destined to reserve certain spaces, both those dedicated to the service of audiences and courts and the rooms arranged for privacy and daily rest. Throughout their long existence, the surfaces of the screens were painted with all kinds of figurative subjects: from stories and legends to naturalistic landscapes with horses, birds and flowers, although there were also those destined to exhibit exquisite calligraphic strokes. For this, the screens used all kinds of materials: some covered their surfaces with different precious metals, tortoiseshell, jewels, fine silk fabrics or a variety of papers, all according to the splendor that each lord and palace wanted to display. This magnificent screen, composed of four leaves, is closely linked to the artistic production of lacquered elements in the Novo-Hispanic world, specifically in this case to a workshop possibly established in Patzcuaro and known as the Taller de los Galgos. The lacquering technique throughout the Americas in general was developed by combining pre-Hispanic lacquer techniques with the techniques and decorative motifs often produced in the Orient, resulting in marvelous creations such as the one we present here. It is evident to the untrained eye the decorative visual load with oriental influences of our screen, which is also present in the five examples of bateas known to date from this workshop. In them the exaggerated load of vegetal decorative elements of flowers and fruits such as the pomegranate that are repeated over and over again as in our folding screen. It would not be the first time that a workshop specialized in one type of articles began to produce others using the same technique. Such is the case in particular of the Cerda workshop, specialized in trays, of which we have evidence that there is a fantastic lacquered chest of drawers in the Metropolitan Museum and a painting of a Virgin signed by him.