The New World, the Basque Language, and the Power of Painting: The Art and Writing of Baltasar de Echave Orio

At the turn of the seventeenth century, the Basque emigre Baltasar de Echave Orio (1558-1623) was the leading painter in Mexico City, then the capital of the Spanish Viceroyalty of New Spain (present-day Mexico and Central America). Echave is an important figure in the history of New Spanish art-his compositions were repeated by artists of later generations like Jose Juarez and Cristobal de Villalpando, and both Echave's grandson and great grandson went on to become successful painters in their own right. In 1607, at the height of his career, Echave published the Discursos de la antiguedad de la lengua cantabra bascongada, an ambitious treatise on the history of the Basque language. Scholarship on Echave either mentions the Discursos only in passing or leaves it out completely. This dissertation shows the Discursos to be closely bound up with Echave's artistic output. Looking at his writing and painting together brings into focus Echave's interrogation of the relationship between the New World and the Old World and his reflection on the function of the artist in New Spanish society. The first chapter presents an in-depth analysis of the Discursos. Echave begins by using the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire to illustrate the way the Romans overtook the Basques in ancient Iberia. Later in the text, Echave decries Spanish imperial expansion for luring Basques overseas, severing their connection to their homeland. Throughout the treatise Echave imports techniques from his work as a painter in order to make his argument more compelling. The second chapter considers Echave's contact with church authorities, including the Inquisition and the Archbishop of New Spain. In his interactions with members of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, who were also his principal patrons, Echave adopted a position of extreme deference to the policies of the Counter Reformation. At the same time, Echave used that position to stake out a privileged role for producers of sacred art predicated on their ability to channel devotion toward specific heavenly figures. The final chapter examines three paintings in which Echave confronts the concepts of the relic and the acheiropoieton (an image made through divine action). Echave's works provide a visual complement that increases the impact of these semi-divine objects. His paintings catalyze the relationship between the faithful and sacred artifacts, paralleling the use of illusionism in the Discursos to connect modern Basques with their biblical ancestors. Across his work as both a painter and a writer Echave develops a uniquely New Spanish theory of art. Founded on the principles set forth in the Council of Trent that cast sacred images as conduits between humanity and divine beings, Echave's theory also sees painting as able to bridge the conceptual and physical distance that separates the New World from the Old World. Painting in seventeenth-century New Spain is often considered unsophisticated and entirely beholden to European models. The work of Baltasar de Echave Orio highlights the role of the New World in shaping New Spanish painting, and suggests a framework that allows us to reevaluate art from this period on its own terms.