The book provides the first broad survey of church textiles of
Spanish America and demonstrates that, while overlooked, textiles
were a vital part of visual culture in the Catholic Church. When
Catholic churches were built in the New World in the sixteenth
century, they were furnished with rich textiles known in Spanish as
“church clothing.” These textile ornaments covered churches’
altars, stairs, floors, and walls. Vestments clothed priests and
church attendants, and garments clothed statues of saints. The
value attached to these textiles, their constant use, and their
stunning visual qualities suggest that they played a much greater
role in the creation of the Latin American Church than has been
previously recognized. In Clothing the New World Church, Maya
Stanfield-Mazzi provides the first comprehensive survey of church
adornment with textiles, addressing how these works helped
establish Christianity in Spanish America and expand it over four
centuries. Including more than 180 photos, this book examines both
imported and indigenous textiles used in the church, compiling
works that are now scattered around the world and reconstructing
their original contexts. Stanfield-Mazzi delves into the hybrid or
mestizo qualities of these cloths and argues that when local
weavers or embroiderers in the Americas created church textiles
they did so consciously, with the understanding that they were
creating a new church through their work. The chapters are divided
by textile type, including embroidery, featherwork, tapestry,
painted cotton, and cotton lace. In the first chapter, on woven
silk, we see how a “silk standard” was established on the basis
of priestly preferences for this imported cloth. The second chapter
explains how Spanish-style embroidery was introduced in the New
World and mastered by local artisans. The following chapters show
that, in select times and places, spectacular local textile types
were adapted for the church, reflecting ancestral aesthetic and
ideological patterns. Clothing the New World Church makes a
significant contribution to the fields of textile studies, art
history, Church history, and Latin American studies, and to
interdisciplinary scholarship on material culture and indigenous
agency in the New World.
General
Imprint: |
University of Notre Dame Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
February 2021 |
Firstpublished: |
2020 |
Authors: |
Maya Stanfield-Mazzi
|
Dimensions: |
254 x 178 x 33mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover
|
Pages: |
432 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-268-10805-2 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
0-268-10805-6 |
Barcode: |
9780268108052 |
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!