The Manila Galleon, a Spanish trading ship which navigated the Pacific between Manila and Acapulco in Nueva España made possible the flow of goods and populations starting in 1565 to 1815. All sorts of luxurious products such as opulent silks and porcelain from China; spices from the Moluccas, ivory from India; and Japanese lacquerware, as well as folding screens, were highly prized. These products stimulated local creativity and ingenuity, commerce, and in turn impacted social and material culture.

The production and exportation of folding screens or byōbu began in Japan during the early Edo period (1600-1868). Decorated with local scenes depicting glittering interiors as well as exteriors of cities in these faraway lands, they became highly desired items (E. Miyata, “Commerce and Merchants in the Manila Galleon Trade,” 2016, 22-31.) In Nueva España, where the screens were referred to as biombos, they soon became required objects in the well-appointed homes of the elite classes. Indeed, the Japanese ambassadors that served in Mexico often offered them as gifts to local dignitaries and the elites. Native artisans first copied them and later developed their own themes or were given commissions for specific decorative designs. A versatile furnishing, the biombo, was made up of various panels that could be painted or illustrated front and back and was a freestanding fixture within the home. Furthermore, it also offered the possibility of acting as a divider of spaces or rooms. The skilled craftsmen which included a furniture maker or carpenter, painter and gilder working on these items, designed ingenious panoramas regarding historical subjects such as the biombo, View of the Palace of the Viceroy in Mexico City, ca. 1600-1700 in the collection of the Museo de América in Madrid, which depicts a remarkable vista of the city of Mexico with the Viceregal palace at its center and supporting scenes detailing the social and political classes of the metropolis at the time. Adept at various commissions, the local artistic workforce was also capable of rendering tableaux that focused on various subjects.

The present lot, which dates to the eighteenth-century, would have been part of a sophisticated home of one of the city’s elites. And, as the fashionable tastes flowed from the Bourbon rulers in Madrid, lavishly describes a fête galante, a celebration of love within the intimate space of a picturesque garden or park. This genre had been made popular by French painter Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) and others such as his student Jean-Baptiste Pater (1695- 1736) and his closest follower Nicolas Lancret (1690-1743). The participants, resplendent in their finest silks and brocades, discard all their worldly cares as they listen to music, read poetry or softly speak of romance in this idyllic setting complete with a red cloth of honor draped over a tree branch. This fragrant rose garden of love includes a classic marble balustrade topped by a Sphinx-like sculpture and a small lake where swans, symbolic of love, glide gracefully. To further embellish the screen, the painter has included ribbons around the composition, bouquets of various flowers at bottom, and small floral details enhance the frame’s wooden support. As each panel is folded, each section seems animated, albeit in a limited manner, making this a lively conversation piece in a domestic setting.

M. J. Aguilar, Ph.D.