Although certain aspects of art in Chile during the colonial period have been the subjects of monographs, this impressive volume is the first comprehensive study of that country’s art and architecture from 1541 to about 1810. The author is the major authority on his subject and provides the fruit of thorough research in the Chilean National Archives. In addition, he brings together specialized studies, many of them difficult to obtain. All told, this is the indispensable synthesis of the subject and belongs on the shelf with Toussaint’s Arte colonial en México and Angulo’s Historia del arte hispano-americano.

Chilean art has been neglected in the general studies, since it presents a special case, having been more dependent on European sources than were Mexico and Peru. In this respect its history parallels that of Argentina and Paraguay, the similarity extending to the Jesuit domination of the arts during the eighteenth century. The isolation and poverty of its situation dismayed generations of European artists, who applied their efforts desperately. As Pereira tells us, the Tyrolean Jesuit sculptor Juan Bitterich wrote from Santiago in 1720: “En cuanto a mi oficio, tengo aquí trabajo excesivo para toda la provincia de Chile; porque nuestros superiores de las casas me piden con insistencia estatuas, altares, y edificios; porque en estas regiones no se encuentran ni escultor ni arquitecto que entienda a fondo su arte” (p. 81). Bitterich wrote with apparent truth, for despite two centuries of European occupation Chile remained in a primitive condition. Although Pereira Salas documents the earlier histories of the religious foundations and their decorations, few of the names seem to be those of artists or architects, but generally those of bumble craftsmen.

Major sections of the book treat the work of successive European artists who contributed to Chilean art and architecture. Most notable among the large company of Jesuits was the Bavarian Carlos Haymbhausen, who arrived in 1724 to found the studio school of La Calera de Tango in Santiago, which was the major center of painting, sculpture, silverwork, and other arts and crafts during the eighteenth century. The work of the military architects such as Juan (or John) Garland, an Irishman, is not neglected. The Italian architect Joaquín Toesca dominated Chilean building during the last nineteen years of the eighteenth century and provided the most distinguished examples of the Neoclassic style. The silver of the Jesuit smiths and Toesca’s Santiago Cathedral and La Moneda Palace are the most impressive aesthetic achievements of these centuries.

Pereira Salas treats this art as the objective data of history and refrains from stylistic analysis. He thus provides fundamental material for the social and economic history of Chile, as well as for its art history. The book is furnished with 237 plates and numerous text figures. Although poorly printed, they are adequate for a general study.