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Attributed to
Damián Hernández
Mexican (born in Spain), active 1607–70
Basin (lebrillo)
Mexico (Puebla), 1650–70
Tin-glazed earthenware
This enormous basin is among the finest surviving examples of Talevera Poblana, early tin-glazed earthenware pottery made in Puebla, Mexico, during the 17th century. It mixes Mudéjar (Hispano-Moresque) designs with the style of fashionable Chinese blue-and-white porcelains imported via the Manila Galleon trade. Islamic-style archways and floral motifs decorate the interior walls of the basin, while the center features the double-headed eagle of the European Habsburg dynasty, which controlled New Spain until 1700. At the heart of the eagle is what appears to be a Mexican teocalli (temple), rendered as a building in profile with a crenelated roof, from which emerges a nahua (or curled “speech” scroll)—a symbol of power and authority in Mesoamerica. This suggests that the painter, likely someone working in the Puebla workshop of master potter Damián Hernández, was familiar with Indigenous Mexican hieroglyphic imagery.
Museum purchase with funds from the Estate of Robert J. Morris, 2018 2018.2761
View: Interior
Basin (lebrillo)
Attributed to: Damián Hernández (Mexican, born in Spain, active 1607 – 1670)
1650–1670
Object Place: Puebla de los Ángeles, Mexico
Medium/Technique
Tin-glazed earthenware (talavera)
Dimensions
Height x diameter: 20 × 60.5 cm (7 7/8 × 23 13/16 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase with funds from the Estate of Robert J. Morris
Accession Number2018.2761
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsCeramics – Pottery – Earthenware
Attributed to
Damián Hernández
Mexican (born in Spain), active 1607–70
Basin (lebrillo)
Mexico (Puebla), 1650–70
Tin-glazed earthenware
This enormous basin is among the finest surviving examples of Talevera Poblana, early tin-glazed earthenware pottery made in Puebla, Mexico, during the 17th century. It mixes Mudéjar (Hispano-Moresque) designs with the style of fashionable Chinese blue-and-white porcelains imported via the Manila Galleon trade. Islamic-style archways and floral motifs decorate the interior walls of the basin, while the center features the double-headed eagle of the European Habsburg dynasty, which controlled New Spain until 1700. At the heart of the eagle is what appears to be a Mexican teocalli (temple), rendered as a building in profile with a crenelated roof, from which emerges a nahua (or curled “speech” scroll)—a symbol of power and authority in Mesoamerica. This suggests that the painter, likely someone working in the Puebla workshop of master potter Damián Hernández, was familiar with Indigenous Mexican hieroglyphic imagery.
Museum purchase with funds from the Estate of Robert J. Morris, 2018 2018.2761
ProvenanceProbably around 1940s/1960s, acquired at an auction in Belgium by Valère Romain Schleiper (b. 1920 – d. 2014), Uccle, Belgium; 2014, by descent to his son, Eric Schleiper, and Jeannette Jongen; September 27, 2017, anonymous sale (consigned by Schleiper and Jongen), Carlo Bonte Auctions, Bruges, Belgium, lot 948, to E. and H. Manners, London; 2018, sold by E. and H. Manners to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 13, 2018)