Painted Threads in the Hands and Eyes of Women in Early Modern Spain and Peru

• In Event: Material Culture and Early Modern Women in Spain II

Abstract

Paintings depicting the Virgin Mary spinning wool in the Temple of Jerusalem are found in women’s dowries and in convents in early modern Spain and Peru. Through an investigation of iconography, documentary and literary sources, and material culture, this paper explores the canvases as a testament to women’s devotional practices and the virtuous activity of cloth-making. It suggests that the paintings served as pictorial versions of written conduct manuals, portraying the Virgin as the ultimate model for all women as she demonstrates proper piety and domestic work. In Peru, this was complicated by pre-Hispanic traditions like the acllas, or women who made precious cloth for the Inka nobility. The former owner of one Spanish painting placed a crochet needle between the stretcher and support as an offering of devotion to the Virgin, materially attesting to the significance the canvases and the image held for women in the Hispanic world.

Author

• Sabena Kull, University of Delaware