Fuentes grabadas del biombo novohispano del Museo de Navarra [Engraved sources of the Novohispanic folding screen of the Museo de Navarra]

Abstract

The Navarra Museum contains a masterpiece of Novohispanic art: the folding screen of the Four Parts of the World. The purpose of this article is to report the engraved sources of this folding screen and to underscore the ways in which the screen departs from its sources. The folding screen in question contains two representations of the Earth (Ceres and Flora) and allegories of its four Continents (Africa, America, Asia, and Europe). The personifications of the Earth were invented by Maarten de Vos and engraved by Adriaen Collaert and Johannes Sadeler I. Thus they served as sources to the Novohispanic artist that painted our folding screen. As to the allegories of the continents, they too were inventions of Maarten de Vos.  As described in this article, the Novohispanic artist selected these sources, combined them into an organic whole, and transformed them in form, content, and function.