Heaven, Hell, and Everything in Between: Murals of the Colonial Andes. Ananda Cohen Suarez. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2016. xii + 274 pp. + 16 color pls. $29.95.

Abstract

"only be achieved by a certain boldness that is born from a generous heart" (79). Indeed, as Véliz perceptively observes in her introductory essay, the treatise is concerned with "what an artist should be" (12), rather than with practical instructions on how to paint, and biographical accounts often end with a note on how Spanish artists-from Morales to El Greco-invested in pomp and ceremony (118), behaved as courtly gentlemen (142), and conducted themselves honorably (127). Many of these artists are little-known painters and sculptors from Aragon, demonstrating Martínez's desire to immortalize his region's artistic output. However, Martínez extends such nationalistic sentiments to the totality of Spanish art by including Jusepe Ribera's famous characterization of Spain as "the cruelest stepmother to her own sons" (58), and by lamenting how little known Spanish artists are in foreign lands, partially aggravated by the lack of prints reproducing their works-a project that would only be undertaken systematically after the creation of the Calcografía Nacional in 1789. Most eloquently, his constant promotion of the benefits of mentorship reminds us that Spanish artists since Vicente Carducho had failed to secure royal protection in the creation of academies of drawing, which, again, would not materialize until the 1750s with the creation of the Royal Academy of San Fernando. In this respect, but also in its nationalistic traits, its defense of imagination, and even its brief formulation of good taste (71), Martínez's treatise anticipates ideas that will be fully developed in the Enlightenment. The careful translation indicates the multiplicity of meanings of complex terms such as ingenio, liberalidad, prudencia, or ciencia, used frequently, but not always with the same connotations, throughout the treatise. Although brief, Véliz's introduction provides useful historical and artistic context, summarizing the main points of Martínez's treatise and highlighting its originality within the Spanish context.