Segesser Hide Painting II, full view
Date
1720 - 1729
Creator
Name(s) currently unknown
Location
Santa Fe, NM, USA, Palace of the Governors
Introduction
This work, a remarkable painting on hide, shows a 1720 battle between Spanish troops and their Pueblo allies against the French and their indigenous allies in what is today Nebraska. Likely painted by an indigenous artist who may have even witnessed the battle, it fuses a Plains Indian tradition of history painting on hide with a European tradition of battle tapestries.
Iconography
The distinct rendering of landscape, with rivers forming a sideways Y, shows the confluence of the Loup and the Platte rivers in what is today eastern Nebraska where the events took place in 1720. Where the rivers disappear from view, a join between two hides is clearly visible. The pigment was put directly on the hides, without a layer of sizing or gesso. The elaborate painted frame of flowers and arabesques was also a convention of European woven tapestries, which the painters here may have used as inspiration. A full border would have originally framed the painting. Its lack, as well as the ragged edge on the right side, shows that the painting has lost a section.
Patronage/Artist
The maker of the hides is unknown. Internal evidence shows the painter not to have been someone professionally trained in New Spain. But the attention paid to, and knowledge of, indigenous military orders and battle gear, suggests its creator’s identity as Amerindian. We know that among the 19th century Indians of the Plains, men were typically charged with painting histories on hides, which additionally suggests that its artist was male.
Material/Technique
The paintings were created on tanned hide, which was probably taken from a bison, given its size. Individual hides were sewn together to create elongated vertical field. Within Spanish centers in northern New Spain, hides were typically used for high-status painting, but their imagery was almost always religious.In contrast, the Plains Indians created battle paintings like this one on hide and a number are known from the 19th century. This hide and its companion, the Segesser I, are the earliest history paintings on hide known from the region.
Context/Collection History
This is one of a set of two hides. Two decades after the hides were created, they were in the hands of a Jesuit priest, Philipp von Segesser von Brunegg, who sent them to Switzerland as a gift to his family. The hides still carry the name of this early collector, rather than their maker. They were brought back to the United States by their purchase by the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, part of the Museums of New Mexico, in 1988.
Cultural Interpretation
In Europe, tapestries with narratives of military victories were often carried with the gear of generals, and hung as internal or external decorations for the leader’s tent in camp. Thus, the format and iconography of the Segesser hide echoes the elegant woven tapestries made in the metropolitan centers of Europe that would have served a similar function of battle commemoration. In addition, the medium, tanned and smoothed hide, ties it to another similar tradition, that of paintings commemorating of battles and acts of individual courage done by Plains Indian artists, known from 19th century examples. Such paintings of military valor served a similar function in both societies: to record past deeds and to inspire their future counterparts.
Photo credit
Unknown creator, reproduced courtesy of the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), #152690
Cite as
Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy.
Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820. http://www.fordham.edu/vistas, 2015.
Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820. http://www.fordham.edu/vistas, 2015.
Selected bibliography
Barr, Juliana and Edward Countryman. 2014. "Toward and Indigenous Art History of the West." In Contested Spaces of Early America. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvnia Press, 276-299.
Donahue-Wallace, Kelly. 1996. “The Print Sources of New Mexican Colonial Hide Paintings.” Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas 68: 43-69.
Hotz, Gottfried. 1991. The Segesser Hide Paintings: Masterpieces Depicting Spanish Colonial New Mexico. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press.
Stiver, Louise I. 2008. “Segesser Hide Paintings: An Overview.”
Donahue-Wallace, Kelly. 1996. “The Print Sources of New Mexican Colonial Hide Paintings.” Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas 68: 43-69.
Hotz, Gottfried. 1991. The Segesser Hide Paintings: Masterpieces Depicting Spanish Colonial New Mexico. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press.
Stiver, Louise I. 2008. “Segesser Hide Paintings: An Overview.”
Collection
Citation
“Segesser Hide Painting II, full view,” VistasGallery, accessed September 16, 2024, https://vistasgallery.ace.fordham.edu/items/show/1890.