BAPTISMAL FONT COVER

Provenance: Sequía Vieja (Río Salado), province of Santiago del Estero.

Hispanic-indigenous culture

ORIGIN AND CHRONOLOGY: this period includes the period after the discovery of America by the Spaniards, in which the aborigines had not all been conquered and still conserved “their own cultures”.

This situation of cultural contact historically took place in the current provincial territory between 1543 and 1767 in two geographical areas: Río Dulce, central sector and surrounding areas, and Río Salado between Matará and Real Sayana.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS: Pottery was a very representative cultural element at this stage. From its analysis it can be deduced that it was made by indigenous labour, but under Spanish direction, who guided the shape and decoration of the various pieces found.

AESTHETIC ASSESSMENT: The plastic concepts of indigenous pottery from this period underwent significant changes. Thus, a new richness can be observed in the shapes, colour, decorative motifs, manufacturing technology and even in the use of raw materials. Their ornamentation is small, dense, two-coloured, in borders and also in horizontal registers, and tends to cover a large part of the surface of the ware.

Some oriental forms are striking, but they also indicate the Arab influence on the Spanish culture of the 15th and 16th centuries, which is essentially the one that reached America.