The Art Work of 18th-century Spanish America
These four artworks represent a range of artistic mediums and practices in 18th-century Spanish America; however, as a collective, they highlight how artistic production functioned as a record of the environmental extraction. Each work reflects the various material, ecological, and symbolic uses of natural resources, as well as the impact these practices had on both Spanish and local populations.
Resource extraction and environmental depletion underpin much of the art produced in Spanish colonial America during the Enlightenment era. Resource exploitation refers to the taking and use of natural materials for human gain, often at the expense of ecological stability (EBSCO). These interactions of human activities and the natural environment were intensified under enlightened despotism. Spanish monarchs embraced Enlightenment ideals of reason, order, and scientific knowledge and applied them to their colonies as tools for strengthening royal authority and increasing imperial wealth. As a result, the Americas became a laboratory for exploration and economic experimentation. Scientific expeditions, botanical studies, mining operations, and agricultural projects all reveal an imperial agenda that framed the environment as an economic asset to be organized, improved, and harvested.
This goal to collect, classify, claim, and extract was extended to plants, animals, landscapes, and even people. The scientific study of the environment and economic trade of natural goods depicted in visual culture reiterated the importance and wealth of the Spanish monarchy. Depictions of plants and the environment reflect shifts in land and water use as well as the scientific and economic rationale behind intensified resource extraction. Often having been sent back to Spain as study material and visual evidence of the crown’s immense wealth and power, Art produced in the colonies reflects and reinforces this worldview. Examples of environmental exploitation are visible across multiple art styles. By capturing newly encountered plants, botanical illustrations and scientific drawings supplied scientific knowledge and revealed their economic potential. Landscape paintings and maps asserted control over nature and became visual claims of the Spanish Crown’s vast rulership. Decorative arts like silverwork and pigments were made from precious, extracted materials, embodying the wealth drawn from Indigenous labor and the environment.
The Spanish Crown used both art and science to justify and intensify environmental exploitation, shaping the cultural and ecological landscapes of the Spanish Americas. Through this process, art became a tool for asserting authority over nature and society, while the production of colonial artworks and commodities made extraction visible both symbolically and physically.
Botanical Illustrations
Real Expedición Botánica del Nuevo Reino de Granada (1783–1816), directed by José Celestino Mutis.
Real Jardín Botánico (CSIC), Madrid.
This illustration of a tobacco plant was produced during the Royal Botanical Expedition to New Granada (1783–1816), one of the largest scientific projects in the Spanish Americas during the Enlightenment. José Celestino Mutis, a Spanish Botanist, led the project and employed Indigenous and mestizo artists to accompany him on his explorations. This type of art is referred to as taxonomic botany, illustrations for the purpose of plant classification and scientific knowledge. Mutis encouraged the artists who joined him to stray from the classic European style of botanical illustrations in order for them to develop distinguished names for themselves as artists. The stylistic choices prevalent in Mutis Expedition artwork favored symmetry, flatness, and the use of tempera for more vivid coloring. This plant is isolated against a solid background, its stem and flowers carefully splayed, and both sides of the leaves captured to make it easily identifiable. By documenting plants in meticulous detail, the Spanish were able to determine the commercial profitability of species in the Colonial Americas. This specific illustration is of a tobacco plant, one of the most successful natural exports. The cultivation, regulation, and sale became a major source of revenue for the Spanish Crown. This illustration, therefore, is an example of how colonial enlightenment knowledge encouraged the identification of natural resources as a means of symbolic control and environmental exploitation for trade and profit.
Natural History
Made up of 381 figures and 195 scenes, it catalogs the region’s population, animals, plants, and geography. The figures portrayed are distinguished by their skin color, attire, and labels, an organizational method similar to natural history taxonomy, suggesting that the Peru people, like plants and animals, could be ranked and managed. Even more revealing are the illustrations of the region’s flora and fauna. The isolated images and organized labels remove the animals and plants from their habitats, presenting them as specimens ready for extraction. At the center lies a detailed map and a painting of mining zones, revealing more of the artwork’s investment in environmental exploitation. Silver mining was a major economic focus for the viceroyalty, and the map’s central placement signals its value for colonial wealth. The Quadro del Perú turned the land and life making up the Viceroyalty of Peru into a controlled and transportable object representing ownership and exploitation.
The Quadro del Peru is a display that reveals how Enlightenment knowledge systems supported the environmental exploitation of the Peruvian viceroyalty. Drawing inspiration from the early modern cabinets of curiosity, or Wunderkammern, the Quadro del Perú organizes the colonial territory into categories of Artificialia, Naturalia, and Scientifica. Similar to how curiosity cabinets signaled the wealth and knowledge of their collectors, this compilation of images, texts, and maps transforms the territory of Peru into an object that could be controlled, transported, and studied. Created specifically to be sent back to Spain and displayed in the Natural History Museum, it became accessible to the public, reaffirming imperial authority. Its placement in a Spanish museum reinforced the message of the monarchy’s dominion over distant lands, making colonial control visible and tangible to viewers.
Religious Silverwork
While the artist of the piece is unknown, the silver stand most likely comes from Cuzco. Stands like this one were made to hold a missal, a book of instructions for the celebration of Mass. Churches in Spanish America were often led by wealthy Spanish and were decorated with fine objects like this. Religion in Spanish America became a major way for the locals to express and celebrate their unique culture and identity, also referred to as Criollismo. These services often featured performative piety, outward religious expression, and liturgical or public ceremonies like mass. The creation of this stand is evidence of adamant religious devotion, but the materials reveal the environmental extraction that took place for the beautiful object. The ornamental silver sheets that cover the wooden base of the structure came from mines extracted through the use of slave and indigenous peoples’ work. Silver was a luxury metal, and the abundance of it in Spanish America gave the Spanish a reason to establish and operate mines throughout the viceroyalty. The mines produced a massive amount of silver and various minerals, which fueled global trade and profoundly impacted the economies of Spain and the colonies. Looking more closely at the detailed metal embossing, silver was skillfully hammered to create floral and leaf patterns. There is also a cross decorating the silver surface representing passion and what is thought to be a phoenix symbolizing rebirth (“Missal Stand,” VistasGallery). Ultimately, silver work like this was commonly crafted into decorative religious pieces, symbolizing the importance of religious identity and the fertility of the lands.
The Quito Series Up Close
Vicente Albán, Principal con su negra, esclava (Noblewoman with a Black Slave), 1783, oil on canvas, 31.5 x 43 in (80 x 109 cm) Museo de América, Madrid.
Sources & Images
EBSCO. n.d. “Resource Exploitation and Environmental Degradation | Research Starters | EBSCO Research.” Accessed December 4, 2025. https://www.ebsco.com.
Google Arts & Culture. n.d.-a. “Quadro de Historia Natural, Civil y Geográfica Del Reyno Del Perú – José Ignacio de Lequanda and Louis Thiébaut.” Accessed December 3, 2025. https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/quadro-de-historia-natural-civil-y-geográfica-del-reyno-del-perú-josé-ignacio-de-lequanda-and-louis-thiébaut/igE86USP5Q1cYg.
Google Arts & Culture. n.d.-b. “Spanish Lady with Her Black Woman Slave – Vicente Albán.” Accessed November 23, 2025. https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/spanish-lady-with-her-black-woman-slave-vicente-albán/oQHXVKcQmljzZA.
“Missal Stand · VistasGallery.” n.d. Accessed November 23, 2025. https://vistasgallery.ace.fordham.edu/items/show/1785.
Sifford, Dr Elena FitzPatrick. n.d. “Vicente Albán, Quito Series.” Smarthistory. Accessed November 19, 2025. https://smarthistory.org/vicente-alban-series/.
Vía Intermedia. n.d. “Dibujos de la Real Expedición Botánica del Nuevo Reino de Granada (1783-1816) dirigida por José Celestino Mutis (Real Jardín Botánico CSIC).” Accessed December 2, 2025. https://mutis.rjb.csic.es/paginas/laminadibujo.php?lamina=2872.