Economic historians concerned with the utilization of labor in colonial Hispanic America have seldom considered the relationship of art, architecture, and associated crafts with its more general problems. While the Church receives extended discussion, its function as a kind of “public works administration” is seldom examined. It is reported to have constructed some 70,000 churches in the New World, 15,000 in colonial Mexico alone, and these figures do not include all ecclesiastical structures. As Hispanic culture consolidated in the Indies, and wealth increased, the buildings assumed ever more majestic proportions, and the artistic dominance of Baroque, Rococo, and Neo Mudéjar styles incorporated such intricacy of detail and excessive ornamentation that their completion often required decades, scores of years, and even a century and more, as in the case of cathedrals. A considerable part of the regional labor force was thus occupied constantly, ranging from architects, artists, craftsmen of every kind—quarrymen, brick-makers, masons, carpenters, stone and wood carvers, sculptors, gilders, gold and silversmiths—to an army of common laborers, mostly Indian.
Many of these structures and elaborate artifacts of the colonial period survive today as documentary symbols of a culture, a way of life, and an economy greatly differing from our own. A masterly record of these substantial and tasteful edifices and objects, of their builders and makers, and of little-known products such as church organs, is provided by the magnificent pioneer study here noticed. Originally published in 1951, this new soft-cover edition in two volumes is a splendid example of book-making and a bargain for the purchaser. The text is separate from the volume of some 750 sharply focused photographs admirably reproduced in 192 plates, and both volumes open flat for easy reference. The reader, therefore, can easily and conveniently take a conducted tour of a vast museum extending from Mexico through Middle America into the Andean countries and Brazil under the guidance of a preeminent expert who has devoted a substantial part of his life to its study. And what an enlightening and memorable tour it is! (Original edition not reviewed in HAHR.)
