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    Finding Caspicara
    Double Identities, Hidden Figures, and the Commerce of Sculpture in Colonial Quito

    Susan Verdi Webster (Author)

    9781477329726, University of Texas Press

    Hardback, published 1 October 2024

    272 pages, 44 color photos, 5 b&w photos
    25.4 x 17.8 x 2.3 cm, 0.68 kg

    Webster’s commitment to detailed analysis and context delivers a book that not only transforms our understanding of Caspicara and his oeuvre, but also the broader field of colonial polychrome sculpture. Her careful and thorough analysis, as well as her eloquent assessment of many of the issuest hat have held back previous scholarship on polychrome sculpture...should inspire others to pick up where she left off. Ultimately, this book is a must read for all of those who are interested in Caspicara, Quito, or polychrome sculpture across the Spanish empire.
    (The Americas)

    An examination of sculpture and authorship in eighteenth-century Quito that documents Caspicara as a participant in the innovative artistic production of the city’s workshops and its widespread commerce of polychrome sculptures.

    Who is Caspicara? Nothing is known of Caspicara’s life, and not a single sculpture has been documented as his work. Yet traditional histories laud him as a prolific Indigenous sculptor in eighteenth-century Quito who created exquisite polychrome figures and became a national artistic icon. Drawing on extensive archival, historical, and object research, Susan Verdi Webster peels away layers of historiographical fabrication to reveal what we do and do not know about Caspicara and his work.

    Rather than being a solitary master, Caspicara collaborated with other, largely Indigenous artists in Quito’s protoindustrial workshops, manufacturing sculptures now credited to him alone. The high quality of Quito sculptures produced by anonymous artists turned the city into a hub of wide-ranging commerce in religious icons. The art world and post-independence Ecuadorians have lionized the one named sculptor, Caspicara, according to the Western model of the artist-genius, amplifying the market for works bearing his name and creating a national hero on par with European masters. Lost in this process were the artists themselves. Webster returns to their world, detailing their methods and labor and, for the first time, documenting a sculpture made by Caspicara.

    • List of Illustrations
    • Preface
    • Acknowledgments
    • Introduction
    • 1. Inventing Caspicara
    • 2. Painted Sculpture: The Paragone and Division of Labor in Quito
    • 3. Caspicara in the Taller
    • 4. Bultos and Body Parts: The Production and Commerce of Quito Sculpture
    • 5. Caspicara in the Archive
    • 6. Tracking Caspicara in PopayÁ
      n: Confraternities and Holy Week
    • 7. Hidden Figures: Caspicara and Quito Sculpture
    • 8. Subsidiary Figures: More Commissions from Quito
    • 9. Mise en ScÈ
      ne: Sculptures in Motion
    • Conclusion: Seeing Caspicara Anew
    • Appendix A. Last Will and Testament of Juan Manuel Legarda (Excerpt), 1773
    • Appendix B. Inventory of the Confraternity of Saint Peter, PopayÁ
      n, 1777
    • Appendix C. Artistic Commissions from Quito to PopayÁ
      n, 1792–
      1802
    • Notes
    • Bibliography
    • Index

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