Visual voyages : images of Latin American nature from Columbus to Darwin /
Bleichmar, Daniela,1973-author.
Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA (Project)
Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery.
Getty Foundation.
From the voyages of Christopher Columbus to those of Alexander von Humboldt and Charles Darwin, the depiction of the natural world played a central role in shaping how people on both sides of the Atlantic understood and imaged the region we now know as Latin America. Nature provided incentives for exploration, commodities for trade, specimens for scientific investigation, and manifestations of divine forces. It also yielded a rich trove of representations, created both by natives to the region and visitors, which are the subject of this lushly illustrated book. Author Daniela Bleichmar shows that these images were not only works of art but also instruments for the production of knowledge, with scientific, social, and political repercussions. Early depictions of Latin American nature introduced European audiences to native medicines and religious practices. By the 17th century, revelatory accounts of tobacco, chocolate, and cochineal reshaped science, trade, and empire around the globe. In the 18th and 19th centuries, collections and scientific expeditions produced both patriotic and imperial visions of Latin America.  Exhibition: The Huntington Library, San Marino, USA (16.09.2017-08.01.2018).
Published on the occasion of an exhibition of the same name held at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, September 16, 2017-January 8, 2018.
"Published with the assistance of the Getty Foundation."
"Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, Latin American & Latino Art in LA"--Title page verso.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 207-218) and index.
From the voyages of Christopher Columbus to those of Alexander von Humboldt and Charles Darwin, the depiction of the natural world played a central role in shaping how people on both sides of the Atlantic understood and imaged the region we now know as Latin America. Nature provided incentives for exploration, commodities for trade, specimens for scientific investigation, and manifestations of divine forces. It also yielded a rich trove of representations, created both by natives to the region and visitors, which are the subject of this lushly illustrated book. Author Daniela Bleichmar shows that these images were not only works of art but also instruments for the production of knowledge, with scientific, social, and political repercussions. Early depictions of Latin American nature introduced European audiences to native medicines and religious practices. By the 17th century, revelatory accounts of tobacco, chocolate, and cochineal reshaped science, trade, and empire around the globe. In the 18th and 19th centuries, collections and scientific expeditions produced both patriotic and imperial visions of Latin America.  Exhibition: The Huntington Library, San Marino, USA (16.09.2017-08.01.2018).
Foreword / Catherine Hess -- Introduction -- Rewriting the book of nature -- The value of nature -- Collecting: from wonder to order -- New landscapes -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Acknowledgments -- Index -- Illustration credits.
Natural history illustration
Natural history
Scientific expeditions
Natural history in art