This image is for study only, and may not accurately represent the object’s true color or scale…

Wood chest

Primary Unknown Artist

Place MadeSouth America

NationalityColombian, South American

Place MadeColombia, South America

Date18th century

MediumWood with bone inlay

DimensionsOverall: 20 3/8 × 38 × 17 1/4 in. (51.8 × 96.5 × 43.8 cm)

Credit LineBlanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Gift of Judy S. and Charles W. Tate, 2016

Keywords

Rights Statement

Collection AreaLatin American Art

Object number2016.89

On View

On view

Locations

exhibition BMA, Gallery, A13 - Glickman Galleries

Label Text

Web Comments

This chest was intended to store garments or linens. The inlaid woodwork used for its decoration is distinct from marquetry in that there is no veneer. Inlaid means a thicker piece of wood is carved and filled with a contrasting-colored material—bone and white platuquero wood, in this case. Because of the lily-shaped figures and lighter circles, this chest was probably made in Quito, the modern-day capital of Ecuador. Documents show that in that city, Indigenous master carpenters constructed churches and homes with vaulted ceilings embellished in paneling. This third woodworking technique, known in Spanish as artesonado, widely spread throughout Ibero-America, one of the many inheritances from the Islamic culture that flourished in the Iberian Peninsula between 711 and 1492.