“Maque” or ‘lacquer’ technique: In general, the terms “maque” or “lacquer” refer to the technique that covers objects made of wood or thick vegetable bark from cucurbits such as jicara, tecomate or pumpkin, using a preparation obtained from animal fat, vegetable oil and mineral powder to protect, waterproof and decorate. Likewise, the terms allude to the very complex development and change of a technique of pre-Hispanic origin; to a set of knowledge that is still alive in the regions of Guerrero, Michoacán and Chiapas. The characteristic of Patzcuaro is the use of natural pigments and the application of gold leaf in the decoration. This technique, also used in painting and sculpture, reached its peak in the 18th century. (2)

This is a circular piece to which a black maque background has been applied. The decoration is distributed around a large central medallion and surrounding bands. In the widest one there are four smaller floral cartouches. The main one depicts Minos and Scylla from Book VIII of Ovid's Metamorphoses. In the scene appear the names that identify the protagonists. In turn, this image is surrounded by a thick ring composed of vegetal foliage worked in gold leaf, followed by a wider border with four symmetrically distributed scenes, framed by floral elements.

In the upper cartouche appears the representation of Coronis, taken from book II of the aforementioned work of Ovid, and on the left appears Phoebus. The lower cartouche shows Eurydice fleeing, as described in the episode of book X, and finally on the right are the images of two women who witness the abduction of Europa described in book III. Between the spaces that occur between these cartouches, separating the different scenes, large floral motifs are repeated. The last register or band of the piece presents a floral border. (3)  The most outstanding range of colours in the piece are blue, red, white and purple, which in different gradations, in addition to contributing to the creation of volumes, provide the composition with a sensation of exuberant colour.

By the good number of pieces that are preserved in museums and private collections, both in Mexico and abroad, it can be affirmed that Patzcuaro was the most significant artistic centre during the eighteenth century. From this period there are outstanding pieces commissioned by viceroys or their consorts, the best known of which are those made by Manuel de la Cerda (Zerda). (4)

Up to this point, the existence of several maque workshops in Patzcuaro working in parallel during the eighteenth century has been proposed: those of oriental influence in which the famous works of Manuel de la Zerda and the pieces of the workshop of Los Galgos have been classified, and on the other hand, those of western influence in which we find The Workshop of Mythological Themes and The Workshop of the Four Flowers. In this regard, it is important to mention that although there is an independence between workshops, the influences they exert on each other cannot be denied, especially with regard to oriental ornamentation. (5)

The Workshop of Mythological Themes from Patzcuaro, Michoacan, includes a group of pieces characterized by the use of themes from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Likewise, this classification contains the criterion of ornamental and compositional similarities.
After a comparative analysis between the iconographic repertoire and the ornamental and compositional characteristics of the Minos and Scylla bowl and the existing pieces, it can be affirmed, without any doubt, that the bowl of this study belongs to the Workshop of Mythological Themes.

In addition to the mythological theme, among the characteristics of the workshop we can observe elements of undoubtedly baroque origin, such as broken or undulating ribbons, borders, and medallions mixed with large flower backgrounds, as well as oriental elements such as branches, ryu rocks, or willow-trees.

So far, in addition to the Minos and Scylla batea, I have recorded three bateas, two belonging to the Museo de América in Madrid and another to the Museo Nacional del Virreinato in Tepotzotlán, Mexico, a table cabinet in the Franz Mayer Museum in Mexico, a desk in the Museo Amparo in Puebla, and a large trunk in a private collection. In addition to six sewing boxes, two of them from the Museo Nacional del Virreinato and the other four from private collections. Some of these works have been studied (6) and others remain to be analysed with the attention they deserve.

It is important to mention that although there are points in common among these thirteen pieces, there are also visible differences that show a stylistic evolution and a chronology that is difficult to establish, since in some cases the same ornamental motifs are repeated or acquire a letter of naturalisation by incorporating elements of the Novo-Hispanic culture, that is to say, they are appropriated and reinterpreted. The most important thing is that up to this moment there is a lack of ancient testimonies that locate the workshops. As for the images and decorative elements, the hands of different artists can be perceived.

Engraved sources: The great influence that engraved books had throughout Europe as an iconographic source for artists passed to New Spain in the same way; the images of books and engraved prints coming from European sources were the great mine of forms that were used in the New Spain artistic field.

Daisy Ripodas Ardanaz, a pioneer in studies on the subject of the relationship between engravings and sumptuary objects from New Spain, establishes a correspondence between scenes taken from the prose edition of Jorge Bustamante and the images of the Biblis and Cannus plate, from the workshop of mythological themes, kept in the Museo de América in Madrid. The text on the title page informs that the images were in many cases made with the intention of being reproduced: “The transformations of Ovid in the Spanish language, divided into 15 books with the allegories at the end of them, and their figures, for the benefit of the artists. Addressed to Esteban de Ibarra, Secretary of the King, our Lord. At Antwerp. In the house of Pedro Bellero, 1595.” (7)

As for the relationship between engravings and representations of the batea, the author points out that the artisans must have had more direct sources, since many of the scenes are depicted in reverse or details have been removed or elements have been added. It is important to keep in mind that from the beginning, novo-Hispanic artists did not limit themselves to making copies of European models, but rather there was an appropriation and transformation of these. In some cases a clear lack of understanding of the imported sources that crossed the Atlantic is evident.

Iconography of the batea: The main scene of the bowl, located in the central medallion presents “the moment of betrayal”, in which Scylla daughter of Niso, king of Megara, appears before King Minos and gives him the purple lock of her father's hair - a scene that takes place in the context of the siege of Minos to the city of Megara where King Niso reigned. The sovereignty of the city was assured as long as he kept a lock of purple hair that stood out among his gray hair. Scylla, his daughter, accustomed to watch the clashes from a wall, falls in love with Minos. Her infatuation is such that one night she cuts off her father's purple locks to give them to Minos as a token of her love. Minos, horrified, rejects her and abandons the contest. The metamorphoses in this story refer to that of King Niso transformed into a sea eagle and Scylla into a sea bird. The scene, which contains the names of the protagonists, has not been located in any other piece of the workshop.
In the upper cartouche of the bowl appears the representation of Coronis, taken from book II of the mentioned work of Ovid, at the moment in which she is wounded by the arrow of Phoebus or Apollo, who is located in the cartouche on the left side of the piece. In Greek mythology, Coronis was a young woman from Larisa, daughter of Phlegias, king of the Lapiths, who falls in love with the god Apollo, also known as Phoebus, who, being betrayed by the infidelity of his lover, kills her. The informer, a raven named Phyto, is the one who informs Apollo of the infidelity, in the engravings he usually appears on his shoulder. Details of local architecture can be appreciated, such as the house that sneaks into the scene.

It is important to consider the evident correspondence between the back scene of a sewing box in the Museo Nacional del Virreinato and the cartouches showing Coronis and Phoebus. Likewise, possible engraved sources taken for the scene have been located. Unlike the engraving, Coronis does not show his bare chest, his covered torso speaks of the moralizing intention imposed by the Catholic Church in New Spain. (8)

The aforementioned sewing box of the Museo Nacional del Virreinato is also decisive for presenting on the front the episode of the Rape of Europa, which allows us to situate the two women who appear in the right cartouche of the batea of Minos and Scylla. In the story Jupiter disguises himself as a white bull to seduce the princess Europa. The scene shows the astonishment of the two companions of the princess when she climbs on the back of the bull to leave for other lands.
Finally, we analyse the lower cartouche where Eurydice, a naiad, i.e. one of the freshwater nymphs, and Orpheus' betrothed, flees from Aristeo who tries to seduce her. In the chase Eurydice is bitten on the ankle by a snake. It is undoubtedly a tragic love story, very popular in the art world, where Orpheus and Eurydice finally die.

To conclude with the mythological theme, it is quite clear that those responsible for the figurative decoration made use of the iconographic sources with great freedom, modifying clothing, backgrounds and even eliminating details that could attack the prevailing morality, such as covering nudity using clothing of the time. However, regarding the selection of the scenes and their grouping in the same piece, many questions remain to be answered: who made the selection of the stories; were the scenes chosen with a moralising intention; who could read the subject matter of these works; was there a common thread among the selected scenes; was it a purely decorative selection?

Pre-Hispanic antecedents: “The Relación de Michoacán” (9) is part of the reports collected by the Spaniards during the first years of the Colony. Written around 1540, possibly by the Franciscan Jerónimo de Alcalá and preserved in the royal library of San Lorenzo El Escorial, its importance lies in collecting, among other things, narrations of the old Purépecha priests, custodians of a unique history, and registering the presence of organizations by office with representation before the court of the cazonci. The chronicle says: “There was another deputy above all those who painted xicales, called urani atari, who still exists". (10)

There is no evidence that with the arrival of the Spaniards a guild arrangement was applied to congregate the makers of Michoacán, nor is it known the course taken by the pre-existing organisation around the court, nor if the pre-Hispanic order was considered by Vasco de Quiroga when incorporating Spanish masters or specialising each community by trade. Unlike Periban11, which has mentions in chronicles or pieces that have been classified as belonging to that production centre, tracing the development of the manufactures in Patzcuaro during the XVI and XVII centuries offers difficulties since there are neither testimonies nor objects prior to the XVIII century.

Bateas in pre-Hispanic antecedents: The recognition of the manual skill and artistic abilities of the ancient inhabitants of Mesoamerica did not go unnoticed by the Spanish friars. (12) In the same way, documentary records and New Spanish testimonies show the astonishment of the Spaniards in the face of unfamiliar techniques.

As for the antecedent of the bateas, there is the testimony of the Franciscan Antonio de Ciudad Real (13) who records the following: Jícaras very large, like fountains, and large plates obtained from a certain genre of gourds that, taken from their bushes and cut in the middle and cured, give them a varnish and paint them. This information recorded in 1586 is confirmed in the XVII century by the friar Juan de Torquemada (14) who says: ...there are some so large and wide that they cannot be embraced by a man. In this study we want to suppose that in a happy collaboration between Mexican artisans and Spanish carpenters these traditional containers were substituted by wooden supports.

In relation to the term, the word batea begins to be used in chronicles from the beginning of the 17th century and its transfer to the other side of the Atlantic is registered at least from 1726 in the Diccionario de Autoridades where the following is recorded as the first meaning of the word batea: A kind of tray or support, of different shapes and sizes that comes from the Indians, made of painted wood, or straws seated on it.

The circulation of these pieces took place from very early times and many of them arrived in the Metropolis as gifts. The Franciscan Alonso de la Rea (15) says: “They are eminent in all trades, in such a way that their curiosities have run to the whole world, with general applause."

The terms: It is important to point out that the current definitions of lacquer or maque do not correspond to those of the pre-Hispanic world, today lost, nor to those used by the first Spanish chroniclers, who, in the face of an “unexperienced” artistic manifestation, named it “varnishes” or “paintings”,

“Lacquer” and ‘maque’ are terms that come from oriental techniques, which has contributed to proclaim a kinship that we now know does not exist between Asian and American activity; the appearance of similarity, such as the lustrous surface, the unique raw materials and the technical processes do not confirm this link.

Everything seems to indicate that the current names became naturalised in New Spain in the 17th century, when they began to appear in inventories, wills and dowry letters. Finally, it should not be forgotten that the terms “maque” or “laca” allude to the very complex development and change of a technique of pre-Hispanic origin; to a set of knowledge that is still alive in the regions of Guerrero, Michoacán and Chiapas.

Hilda Urréchaga, Ciudad de México, 25 February, 2025

Notes:
1 See Sonia Pérez Carrillo in La Laca Mexicana, Editorial Patria, S.A. de C.V., Mexico, 1990, pp.144-151.
2 For more detailed information on the technique see the article “Maque o laca” by Teresa Castelló Iturbide in Artes de México No.153 Year XIX 1972. p.38. In the same way you can consult the book by Marco Antonio Acosta Ruiz, El maque de Michoacán. Its history and production at present. Printed in Morelia, Mich. Mexico, 2013
3 This clear pattern of bands and medallions around a central element is visible in 17th century bateas classified as Peribán.
4 Francisco de Ajofrín, Diario de Viaje que hizo a la América en el siglo XVIII el P. Fray Francisco de Ajofrín, Instituto Cultural Hispano-Mexicano, Mexico, 1964, p.160.
5 Pérez Carrillo, Op. Cit., 121-190.
6 Among the pieces studied are those belonging to the Museo de América Madrid, the Museo del Virreinato, the Museo Franz Mayer and the Museo Amparo.
7 Daisy Rípodas Ardanaz, Bookish influences in the Novohispanic applied arts. Ornamental motifs of bateas and búcaros. Three Novo-Hispanic studies. Libros de Hispanoamérica, Buenos Aires Argentina, 1983.
8 See Ovid's “Metamorphoses” and the lacquer workshops in New Spain. M. Concepción García Saiz, Sonia Pérez Carrillo, Cuadernos de Arte Colonial, Museo de América de Madrid, Oct. 1986, Ministry of Culture.
9 Jerónimo de Alcalá, Relación de Michoacán, (Zamora, Mich: El Colegio de Michoacán, 2016), 180.
10 Vocabulary in Michoacán language by Gilberti de Condumex.
11 F. Alonso De La Rea, Crónica de la Orden de San Pedro y San Pablo de Michoacán, Editorial Academia Literaria, Mexico, D.F., 1993. p. 15. See Perez Carrillo, Op. Cit. 65-83.
12 Motolinía, Historias de los indios de la Nueva España, México, Salvador Chávez Hayhoe, 1941, p. 243-245.
13 Antonio de Ciudad Real, Tratado Curioso y docto de las grandezas de la Nueva España, t. Mexico, UNAM, 1976, p. 199.
14 Juan de Torquemada, Monarquía indiana, 3rd .ed., t2, Mexico, Salvador Chávez Hayhoe, 1943, p.488 (lib.13, cap.34.
15 De la Rea, op. cit. p. 65-83.