George Kubler, the octogenarian dean of Americanist art historians, has summarized his views on the approaches of great figures and scholars of the past in this small, densely packed volume. From the five centuries since the conquest he has discussed the approaches of 70 writers on “Amerindia” (his neologism) in depth within “a tripartite division as esthetics in experience [sixteenth and seventeenth centuries], idealist esthetics from above [eighteenth and nineteenth centuries], and experimental esthetics from below [nineteenth and twentieth centuries]” (xv). Living scholars are excluded from the featured 70, although many of us are certainly mentioned in passing.
Kubler’s presentation, always dense, here is outlined in terse phrases from quoted works. The extensive footnotes should have been published at the bottom of the pages to clarify the text instead of grouped in a 41-page back section. Even there, several references are lumped together under the same note. The grainy illustrations of historical plates seem arbitrary both in placement and in relevance to the text.
The range of material Kubler has examined is astonishing, including some people thought to be without any esthetic interests, such as Hemán Cortés and Karl Marx. His most stimulating division is between humanist historians and anthropological scientists, which began in 1841 with the simultaneous publication of two studies: a world art history by Franz Kugler and a documentary of ruins by John Stephens. The final chapters continue this division between Americanist historians of art and anthropologists or archaeologists. In essence this is an intellectual history, focusing on the role of the Enlightenment and the subsequent division between art and science. It serves as a valuable handbook to the attitudes of major figures who have determined our perceptions of the arts of pre-Columbian cultures.