Bateas novo-hispanas. Una encrucijada cultural

The Museo de América is hosting the exhibition Bateas Novo-Hispanas. Una encrucijada cultural from 21 May to 18 October, a display dedicated to one of the most unique artistic productions of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.

The exhibition brings together a prominent selection of New Spanish lacquered bates belonging to the extraordinary collection preserved by the Museo de América. These pieces, crafted mainly by indigenous artisans, stand out for their technical refinement, decorative richness, and profound historical and cultural value.

Curated by Adrián Contreras, a researcher specialising in the subject and a lecturer at the University of Granada, the exhibition delves into the origin, evolution, and significance of these works, as well as the diversity of the main production centres for New Spanish lacquerware in Mexico, including Uruapan, Peribán, and Yucatán.

The exhibition tour allows visitors to discover how pre-Hispanic lacquering techniques evolved after contact with Eastern and Western influences, giving rise to luxury objects primarily intended for elites and often linked to women's furnishings. Furthermore, it contextualises these pieces within the broad artistic panorama developed in the Hispanic territories of America, where indigenous, Asian, and European traditions coexisted.

Through technical, material, and documentary studies, the exhibition presents the bates not only as decorative objects, but as testimonies to the cultural exchanges and artistic processes that arose in the New Spanish context.