A Triumphal Arch for the Count of Moctezuma: Architectural Poetics and Artistic Competition at the Cathedral of Mexico City, ca. 1670-1700

摘要

The viceregal entry, in which architecture, painting, poetry, music, and performance came together in an extraordinary political spectacle, is a paradigm of the unification of artistic media in the culture of the baroque. But a close look at the key primary sources for these events-the festival books produced to accompany them-shows that Ramirez de Vargas and his cohort of poets in the late seventeenth century called attention to the division of artistic labor rather than its unity. It is through words and speech rather than carved wood and painted canvas, they imply, that the Idea of the viceroy's parity with strong, virtuous men from classical antiquity is best expressed. Their position might be understood in relation to guild practices and legislation that required carpenters, joiners, gilders, and painters to prove their expertise by successfully completing rigorous examinations before they could achieve the rank of master and accept commissions. Indeed, within these parameters, a poet could not legitimately design the architectural structure.