Article Review: Casta Paintings

Diana DiPaolo Loren argues in her article in the journal of Historical Archaeology titled “Corporeal Concerns: Casta Paintings and the Use of Images in Archaeological Interpretations” that the main issue of simply analyzing the 18th century’s casta paintings through only an archaeological perspective. Loren aligns herself with other critics such as Gallaway, Wylie or Stahl on the opinion that in ignoring “archaeological, ethnohistorical and visual” (Loren, 27) differences between the (approximately) 500 casta paintings it results in a simply “functional” (27) understanding of culture. Allowing other perspectives in order to examine these pieces of art and through highlighting (Loren; Hall, 1992, 2000. 27) the differences or supposed juxtapositions “illuminate central contradictions” (27) faced within 18th century Latin America (including Mexico and Texas); perspectives on how people should act within specific racial socioeconomic classes. Reading Diana DiPaolo Loren’s perspective allows those of us the opportunity to re-examine our proper interpretation of these pieces; to see how the smaller details of portrayal belay different perspectives on the sociopolitical environment of 18th century Latin America.

Diana DiPaolo Loren, Historical Archaeology, Vol. 41, No. 1, Between Art & Artifact (2007), pp. 23-28

Not unlike the previous article, Rebecca Earle contends a new model for examining the socioracial stratification depicted within the 18th century’s casta paintings through her paper “The Pleasures of Taxonomy: Casta Paintings, Classification, and Colonialism”. However this article focuses on the aspect more of the intent of the paintings as not so much being reflective of that era in society, but rather to represent the “outcome” (Earle 2016, 428) of racial mixing through depiction of family composition and social status. Earle also investigates the epistemologies which arose during the Enlightenment period that contributed to the popularity of socioracial classification and representation of families within colonial Latin America. The oftentimes racially idealistic portrayal of the people within the typical 16 frame casta paintings “that so captivated Enlightenment thinkers” (432) resulted from the visually aesthetic manner in which they saw their own ideas of racial classification harmoniously represented. These ideals may have been upheld through things like clothing, diet and setting which also upheld the belief of “passing” as or actively changing the caste you belonged to through simple changes to one’s outward appearance; this is prevalent globally today. In short, Earle describes a debate of the “outcome” (428) of racial mixing within Latin America during the 1800’s Enlightenment era.

Earle, Rebecca. The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 73, No. 3 (July 2016), pp. 427-466