Cup (búcaro)
- unknown artist
Unknown artist, Beaker, 1650-1750. Red Earthenware; 4⅛ × 2⅞ in. Funds from Carl Patterson in honor of Jorge Rivas, 2018.304.
Polished red clay vessels of this kind, known as búcaros de Indias, which were made in the region around Tonalá in present-day Mexican state of Jalisco, were among the most highly prized luxury items in elite European and American households during the 1600s and 1700s. They were admired not only for their refined craftsmanship and exotic origin, but also for the unique aroma and taste of the clay from which they were made. Small beakers with punched, stamped and incised decoration like this were used to contain water and infuse it a pleasing flavor. Thanks to the absorbent qualities of this type of clay, the aroma could be enhanced by storing the búcaros in wooden boxes scented with spices and aromatic oils. The clay also was thought to have therapeutic properties and it became fashionable among elite Spanish and creole women to eat small fragments of the búcaros, a practice that made their complexions pale — a desirable beauty quality at the time.
The popularity of búcaros de Indias in Spain during the Golden Age is well recorded in documents and art of the period. Artists often included búcaros in their still life paintings mixing them with other prized objects such as oriental porcelain, silver vessels or fine glass. In Diego Velázquez’s Las Meninas (1656), the Infanta Margarita is served a small búcaro of water on a silver presentation salver.
– Jorge Rivas Pérez, Frederick and Jan Mayer Curator of Latin American Art, 2018
