Colonial painting in the Americas is closely tied to Spanish and European painting of the 16th to 18th centuries, although there existed both themes and techniques exclusive to those lands.
With this exhibition we want to bring the public closer to precisely one of the most original themes that developed especially in the viceroyalty of New Spain, with some examples from the viceroyalty of Peru, during the 18th century: the pictorial representation of the miscegenation of American society based on its three main groups, Spanish, Indian and Black - the genre known as “pintura de castas”.
The usual model is series of portraits of people forming a couple with the offspring of their union, but the works also depict clothing, jewelry, trades, leisure moments, landscapes, household interiors… all of which allows us to glimpse colonial society of the time.
Today more than a hundred such series are preserved in Spanish and foreign institutions and private collections.