Colonial Lima was steeped in Christian devotional imagery. While Spaniards set the norms for these works, it was the city's Black and Indigenous majority that engaged with them most. As members of lay societies of worshippers called confraternities, subalterns were Lima's key promoters of religious art, surpassing the colonial hierarchy. Ximena Gomez argues that, by commissioning and exhibiting sacred images-in chapels and urban processions, adorned with clothing and accessories-Indigenous and Black confraternities created Lima's visual culture. In one case study, the Indigenous confraternity of the Virgin of Copacabana "invisibly" transforms a sculpture into an object that reflected its multiethnic Andean caretakers. Another case study, that of the confraternity of the Virgin of the Antigua, finds Black worshippers initially united in their interpretation of a Spanish image and later fracturing when some of its members applied a West African interpretive lens. Taking advantage of Lima's rich documentary record, In the Hands of Devotees centers the ritual practices of Black and Indigenous people and opens possibilities for incorporating subalterns into the history of Lima's art when limited extant visual evidence has survived.
Ximena A. Gomez is an assistant professor in the Department of the History of Art & Architecture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
List of Illustrations Abbreviations Introduction Part I 1. Curating Sacred Images and Interactions 2. Inside the Church 3. Fiestas and Processions Part II 4. The Continuous Creation of the Virgin of Copacabana 5. A Virgin from Seville, Contentious Goods, and a Black Confraternity 6. From Ira to Imagen and Back Conclusion Acknowledgments Appendices
"In in this extraordinary study, Ximena GOmez recovers the long-neglected central role Indigenous and Black lay Catholic associations, or confraternities, played in shaping colonial Lima's visual culture as artists, patrons, and consumers. GOmez reminds us of the significance of these institutions in the daily and collective lives of Indigenous and Black LimeNos as they engaged with the city and the Spanish empire's material culture to express their subaltern Catholic subjectivities and carve their own space in that world. Methodologically bold and beautifully written, her book will reshape many fields of study." - Miguel A. Valerio, University of Maryland, author of Sovereign Joy: Afro-Mexican Kings and Queens, 1539-1640 "Ximena GOmez has written a major contribution to the history of Latin American art that shines for its clarity of prose, purpose, and methodology. It is a transformative contribution that will no doubt inspire scholars to follow in its footsteps and strive to shed light on the many overlooked dimensions of the histories of art." - Cecile Fromont, Harvard University, editor of Afro-Catholic Festivals in the Americas: Performance, Representation, and the Making of Black Atlantic Tradition
