A surviving legacy in Spanish America

Seventeenth - and Eighteenth - Century Furniture from the Viceroyalty of Peru

Campos Carlés de Peña, María

A growing interest in the study of the history of decorative arts has led María Campos Carlés de Peña, a specialist in furniture history, to write this book.
The author has conducted extensive research into the extremely rich furniture production of 17th- and 18th-century Peru — during the Colonial Period — in churches, convents, monasteries and private collections. Over eleven chapters, she provides a thorough description of this type of furniture — a part of the vast array of secular and ecclesiastical furniture she was able to single out within that historical context — which was inspired by artistic styles ranging from Mannerism to Neoclassicism, with their many variants and creators.
The recorded, described and chronologically arranged material which nurtured this book is extremely useful as reference material, as well as for enjoyment and the acquisition of knowledge on a topic which, so far, has been little explored. Also, the author thought it relevant to conceive the book as a source of inspiration for subsequent cultural projects related to the decorative arts in Spanish-America and the starting point for future research work.
In this book, Peruvian viceregal furniture appears as an invaluable witness to its time; an example of syncretism between diverse and distant cultures, endowed with symbolism, great beauty and iconographic meaning.