Unknown artist, Christ on the Cross, 1620-1720. Painted wood and ivory; 51 × 39 in. Gift of the Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer, 2015.547A-C.

overall height: 51 in, 129.5400 cm; overall width: 39 in, 99.0600 cm; image height: 21.25 in, 53.9750 cm; image width: 22 in, 55.8800 cm

Mayer Center, Latin American Art

Latin American Art

This object is currently on view

After the Spanish conquest of the Philippines in 1565, Spain finally had its own trade route to Asia. Asian traders came from all over the region to Manila to trade their goods. Spanish merchants purchased these goods in the large market called the Parian and loaded them onto Spanish galleons for the trip across the Pacific to Acapulco where they were offloaded and carried overland by mule trains to either Mexico City for local distribution and consumption, or on to Veracruz to be loaded onto other galleons for the trip across the Atlantic to Spain.

Ivory objects were made in various areas of Asia, including Goa, India, China, Japan, and the Philippines, specifically for the market to Spain and Spanish America. Produced for the export market, these objects employed Christian iconography, often showing the Christ Child, Christ on the Cross, and the Virgin Mary. This elegant example of Christ on the Cross was probably made in either Goa or the Philippines. Artists from all over Asia immigrated to Manila to make goods for the Spanish trade market, making it hard to distinguish country of origin of ivory objects.

– revised by Kathryn Santner, Frederick and Jan Mayer Fellow of Spanish Colonial Art, 2023

Gifted 23 November 2015 by the Frederick and Jan Mayer Collection of Denver, CO to the Denver Art Museum. Provenance research is on-going at the Denver Art Museum. Please e-mail provenance@denverartmuseum.org, if you have questions, or if you have additional information to share with us.

• Exhibited in the Denver Art Museum Spanish Colonial galleries, 1993-2014.