Last chance to see Faith & Fortune

Faith and Fortune: Art Across the Global Spanish Empire closes Monday, October 10, concluding a months-long run on Level 2 of the AGO. The exhibition is a critical, decolonized study, taking visitors on a tour through the history and visual culture of the Spanish Empire. With over 200 works from the collection of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library spanning four hundred years and stretching around the globe, there is much to explore and understand about the lasting legacies of colonization. This exhibition offers visitors important insights into the history of resource extraction, the spread of Christianity, the development of racial categories and Indigenous resistance to conquest.

Included among the paintings of people by Campeche, Velázquez, El Greco and Goya in the exhibition is one by Mexican painter José Agustín Arrieta. El Costeño/The Young Man from the Coast (image at top) depicts a young boy of African descent – perhaps in his early adolescence – holding a basket of tropical fruit in his hands. Tight-lipped, he looks directly into the eyes of the viewer. For all its painterly detail and the skill wielded by Arrieta, the story behind the work is not as clear. Who is this person in the painting? What became of him? What was the relationship between him and the artist? 

Consider the diversity of the Hispanic world, and more specifically, what it meant to be Mexican at that time: this work was painted during a period of historic change, signalling a shift in Mexico's national identity. The country finally gained its independence from Spain in 1821 and slavery was abolished in 1837. A significant number of enslaved people were brought from the African continent to Mexico (and the rest of the Americas) prior to this. The majority of those arrived in Veracruz, the main port of entry along the country’s Gulf Coast. Upon their arrival, they, along with Indigenous people, were sold into the slavery and caste system enacted under Spanish colonial rule. Many resisted this era of brutal enslavement, including Gaspar Yanga, better known as Yanga, who famously led a rebellion of enslaved Africans in 1570. Yanga is believed to a descendant of the royal family of either Angola or Gabon. Once freed, he and other freed Africans eventually established a maroon community (palenques) in the mountains of Veracruz. By the 19th century, the enslavement system in Mexico resulted in an Afro-Mexican community still in existence in the region today—approximately 2.5 million people in Mexico self-identify as Afro-Mexican or of African descent.

Within this historical background, the painting’s title, El Costeño/The Young Man from the Coast, makes sense. Given that it’s dated after 1843, it’s conceivable that this young boy was born to enslaved parents and part of the freed Afro-Mexican population residing in Veracruz and the surrounding areas. And yet, the title when translated into English points to the ways in which Black men and boys are viewed and treated differently—both in the past and present. Although the subject in the painting looks to be no more than 12 years old, he is referred to as a “young man”. This removes him from his childhood and unjustly pushes him into adulthood. “There are lots of other titles that I would think to call this painting,” explains Faith & Fortune’s curator Adam Harris Levine in the audio guide for the work. “I would probably start with The Boy from the Coast or The Child from the Coast because he looks like he's about 10 or 11 years old to me. And it feels really uneasy for me to call him a man and to strip him of childhood. It makes me uneasy because in our society today, we do this a lot. We strip Black children of childhood and treat them like adults. We treat them like adults in the legal structure and in the court of opinion.”

Several questions remain unanswered about this young boy. We may never know who he was or the full details of his life. This painting does, however, help us to conceptualize the mechanics of colonization and how they are rooted in the systemic racism of today.

Arrieta had a prominent career as a costumbrista painter, or a painter of still life and everyday scenes. His patrons were upper-middle class members of Mexican society. After training at the Puebla Academy of Fine Arts, he resided in Puebla (located west of Veracruz) until his passing in 1874.

See El Costeño/The Young Man from the Coast by José Agustín Arrieta at the AGO before Faith and Fortune: Art Across the Global Spanish closes October 10. Faith and Fortune is curated by Adam Harris Levine, AGO Assistant Curator, European Art, with Filipina-Canadian designer and artist Tahnee Ann Macabali Pantig as guest curator.

In case you missed our coverage, read this story about Saint Dominic of Guzmán by Puerto Rican painter José Campeche, this one about the AGO talks giving context to Black and Indigenous artists in the Spanish empire, and this one about artworks connected to the Manila Galleon Trade.