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California Indian Art
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Extract
During the past fifty years much scattered writing has appeared about the arts of the neophyte Indians resident in the California missions. But these arts: the sculpture and carving in stone and wood, the work in metal, the paintings on the walls and on canvas, most of these are not truly Indian. The California Indians were on the whole at a cultural level far below that of the Indians of New Mexico and Arizona, to say nothing of those of Mexico. They were as primitive and backward as any in the western hemisphere. They had no writing, they had little social organization, they knew nothing of metals. Their housing was either huts of rushes or caves; they wore little or no clothing. Their arts were unusually primitive; pottery was almost unknown. Basketry, or the weaving of baskets, was the only craft that reached a considerable development, and the patterns and designs throughout the state are comparable to those of any Indian culture. Several techniques of weaving were used and the decorations comprised designs often using several colors. Sometimes shell mosaics were applied to the baskets to create more interesting patterns.
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- Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1959
References
1 Caughey, John W., California (New York, 1940), pp. 2, 3.Google Scholar
2 Kroeber, Alfred, “Basket Designs of the Indians of Northwestern California,” American Archeology and Ethnology [Berkeley], II, No. 4 (January, 1905).Google Scholar
3 For illustrations of the Canalino types, see Rogers, David Banks, Prehistoric Man of the Santa Barbara Coast (Santa Barbara, 1920), pp. 367–419.Google Scholar
4 Kroeber, Alfred, “Types of Indian Culture in California,” American Archeology and Ethnology, 2, No. 3 (June, 1904), 83 Google Scholar. See also Holway, Mary Gordon, Art of the Old World in New Spain (San Francisco, 1922), pp. 93–96 Google Scholar. For a less scientific article on the customs of northern California Indians, cf. La Motte, Alfred, “The California Indian,” Overland Monthly, 37, No. 4 (April, 1901).Google Scholar
5 The Diary of Miguel Constanso; The Portolá Expedition of 1769–1770 (Berkeley: Publications of the Academy of Pacific Coast History), II, No. 4, 43-49. On this same general theme cf. also Engelhardt, Zephyrin, Missions and Missionaries of California (Santa Barbara, 1930), II, 245–262 Google Scholar; Chapman, Charles E., A History of California: The Spanish Period (New York, 1930)Google Scholar; Bancroft, Hubert H., A History of California (San Francisco, 1884–1886), Vol. 1.Google Scholar
6 Kroeber, op. cit., p. 87.
7 Webb, Edith Buckland, Indian Life at the Old Missions (Los Angeles, 1952), pp. 204–205 Google Scholar. This is the outstanding work on the accomplishments of the Indians under the tutelage of the padres.
8 Ibid., p. 213.
9 Engelhardt, Zephyrin, San Juan Capistrano Mission (Los Angeles, 1922), p. 35.Google Scholar
10 See the list in Webb, op. cit., p. 126, n. 12.
11 Geiger, Maynard, “The Royal Presidio Chapel of San Carlos” in The Americas, 9, No. 2 (Oct., 1952), 207–211.Google Scholar
12 Bancroft, op. cit., p. 615. Bancroft lists these artisans and the specific trades, as well as their salaries, in footnote 29; see also page 684, footnote 15.
13 Ibid., footnote p. 617. At Missions La Purísima Concepción the carpenter and mason Josef Antonio Ramírez was hired in the spring of 1811 to “assist in making stone troughs, vats, wash tubs, and drinking fonts.” He was to be paid $200 in silver and board for a year. ( Engelhardt, Zephyrin, Mission La Purísima Concepción (Santa Barbara, 1932), p. 29.Google Scholar
14 Webb, op. cit., p. 242. Perhaps the vertical wavy grooving commonly known as the river of life motif, and found on almost all mission doors, represented serpents, and the crosses and “x’s” represented stars. Holway (op. cit., p. 103) suggests that “… crude imitation of marble may have been intended by the neophyte artist to represent sky and cloud effects.”
15 “The chapel [Mission Santa Clara church] is painted in fresco, or I should rather say daubed, by a young artist of Mexico…. The whole has a gaudy and unsightly appearance.” ( Wilkes, Charles, Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition [Philadelphia, 1845], V, 206)Google Scholar. Wilkes visited the mission on October 30, 1841.
16 Engelhardt, Zephyrin, Mission San Juan Bautista (Santa Barbara, 1931), p. 30.Google Scholar
17 Webb, op. cit., p. 243. They also asked for a dozen brushes. “ And thus was begun the Indians’ training in mural painting.” ( Webb, Edith, “ Pigments used by the Mission Indians of California,” The Americas, 2, No. 2 (Oct., 1945), 138 Google Scholar. This short article contains a complete and detailed discussion of pigments and techniques, together with other pertinent information concerning decoration.
18 Munras was born in Barcelona, Spain, in 1790. According to a manuscript in the Mission San Miguel Archives, written in 1945 by Father Leone R. Lanzoni, O. F. M., “… he [Munras] had entrusted the painting to the willing hands of his Indian co-helpers. …” Numerous writers as early as 1889 have commented and marvelled’ at these works: … the colors which contain a figment [sic] the name of which has long since been buried with the Indian painters.” ( Courter, John P., History of San Miguel Mission, 1905)Google Scholar. The pigment (for figment?) may well have been the cactus juice frequently used as a binder in painting during the mission period.
19 James, George Wharton, In and Out of the Old Missions of California (Boston, 1907), pp. 333–334 Google Scholar, and passim. There is also a crudely painted and restored vintage scene in one of the rooms of the “ long building.” Cf. Lanier Bartlett, Mission Motifs, Southern California Index of American Design, W. P. A.
20 It is very probable that the Spanish translation of the Vitruvius work, as well as the “manual” of painting from Mission San Gabriel mentioned earlier, made the rounds of the missions as it was needed. The Vitruvius (Marcus Vitruvius Pollio) volume was a 1787 Spanish translation and edition of the ten volume first century A. D. De Architectura. It was standard reference for the classical revival during the Renaissance in both Spain and Italy.
21 Webb, , Indian Life, p. 334.Google Scholar
22 One such was the previously mentioned Thomas W. Doak, who replaced a Spanish “painter” named Chávez at Mission San Juan Bautista in 1818.
23 James, op. cit., pp. 330–333. James wrote critically of these interior decorations in 1905. “The decorations have … a distinctly pathetic quality.” He also quotes the rebuttals to his criticism made by Fathers Glauber and Zephyrin of Mission Santa Barbara. See also note 15, above.
24 Rogers, op. cit., p. 407. The Canalinos were the Indians resident along the Santa Barbara County coast line. See also Webb, Indian Life, passim.
26 By the W. P. A. restoration project of 1935.
29 By Father Ciprián Rubio. ( Engelhardt, Zephyrin, Mission San Buenaventura (Santa Barbara, 1930), p. 140.Google Scholar
27 James, op. cit., pp. 339–340 and Plate LIb.
28 I am indebted to Mr. Ferdinand Perret of Los Angeles for much of the information concerning these neophyte paintings. He has made a thorough study of their history and gives a complete description of each of the canvases. This information he has incorporated into a paper, “ Spanish Colonial Art in the United States ” (November, 1957), now in manuscript form. The descriptive and historical material although of great interest, is too lengthy and too detailed to be incorporated here. See also Mills, Elizabeth T., “Old Indian Paintings at Los Angeles,” Overland Monthly (March, 1901), pp. 766–771 Google Scholar. This is an early account and the style and mannerism of the paintings are carefully described, although there are some errors of interpretation. The author states: “… colors which the Indians made from the wild herbs and roots around them.” This is one of the early articles mentioning this source for the colors. See also note 29, below.
29 Webb, , Indian Life, p. 243 Google Scholar. Mrs. Webb gives a full account of the rather absurd and unfounded comments about these paintings, and of the pigments actually used by the mission Indians. Cf. also Webb, , “Pigments,” pp. 137–150.Google Scholar
30 Abbott, Mamie Goulet in her Santa Inés Hermosa (Santa Barbara, 1951), p. 67 Google Scholar, calls it “ a very crude painting done by an early mission Indian.” The possible source or model for this Indian work might well be the small oil painting on tin (9¼ by 14½ inches) in the collection at Mission Santa Inés. (See Baer, Kurt, The Treasures of Mission Santa Ines (Fresno, 1956), pp. 255–256 Google Scholar. The painting on tin is undoubtedly late 18th century Mexican. It is reasonable to believe that the Indian who painted the canvas did so for his own pleasure, since according to unsubstantiated stories, his name was Rafaelito. Holway (op. cit., pp. 104, 143) states: “… a San Rafael (painted by an Indian of the same name) with a typical Indian face and head.”
32 Gesso (often jesso or yesso) is a very fine plaster containing gypsum. It is an old medium with which wooden surfaces were coated preparatory to being painted or otherwise polychromed.
32 Holway, op. cit., p. 104. This is one of the very few books in which this neophyte’s name appears. The author does not, however, indicate the manner of Teófilo's interpretation. A picture of the “image maker” of Capistrano is reproduced on page 47 of the February, 1911, issue of The Architect and Engineer of California. The author of the article, A. B. Benton, gives no name to this man who appears to be a California Indian, nor does he give the origin of the illustration. He might well be the Teófilo of Holway’s book. Around him are several typical eighteenth-century Mexican statues of sufficient quality to question the implication of the photo caption that he was the carver and decorator of the figures. He may have repaired them and possibly carved some imitations. The man in the picture could not have been active in the mission before the period of secularization; there were no photographers in California before the 1850’s, and it is very unlikely that any such photograph was taken before the 1890’s.
33 See, for example, the illustrations in Weismann, Elizabeth W., Mexico in Sculpture (Cambridge, 1950)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, passim, and Kelemen, Pal, Baroque and Rococo in Latin America (New York, 1951)Google Scholar, especially the illustrations of early façade decorations.
34 Newcomb, Rexford, Franciscan Architecture of Aha California (New York, 1916), Plate XXI. He labels it “ California Bear and Cub,” and it measures about 3 ½ feet high, including the standing cub.Google Scholar
35 Virtually all comments concerning the architectural carving on arches over windows and doors hint at “ Aztec ” origin of the designs. Cf., for example, Dr.Ball, Charles, Symbolic markings of the Old Mission [Capistrano] (Santa Ana, 1931), I, 37–44 Google Scholar. The majority if not all, of the carvings were simply decorative, and where religious symbols were used, they were generally adapted to serve as decorations. Such articles are typical of the romantic writing of the early twentieth century.
36 For illustrations see Webb, Indian Life, passim, and James, op. cit., passim.
37 There is a recent color reproduction of this interesting piece in America’s Arts and Skills by the editors of Life Magazine (New York, 1957), p. 124.
38 For an illustration of this work,.See Holway, op. cit., p. 128.