During your visit to this Santa Fe, New Mexico attraction, learn about the fascinating history of Spanish colonial art worldwide as you explore the Museum’s collections and exhibits. Be sure to stop by Curtin-Paloheimo Gift Shop, carrying one-of-a-kind gifts and keepsakes.
Museum of Spanish Colonial Art Collection
The Museum of Colonial Spanish Art boasts a collection of over 3,000 historically significant and contemporary works of art, representing an artistic heritage of five centuries and four continents. Among the countries whose influences are reflected in the collections are Spain, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil as well as expressions in colonial art including works from the Caribbean, the Philippines and Goa. Artifacts from France, Greece, Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, Morocco, China and Tibet serve as points of comparison for Spanish colonial art throughout the Americas.
Retablos and Bultos
Among the Museum’s holdings is an incredible collection of retablos (religious paintings on wood) and bultos (free-standing religious sculptures). Highlighted works include an image of San Rafael from 1780 by Captain Bernardo Miera y Pacheco, the first known Spanish artist in New Mexico. A painting of San Cayetano signed “Aragon Jose Rafael” is the only colonial New Mexican retablo that bears an artist’s full signature. Other significant retablos and bultos include a gilt sculpture of St. Michael Archangel with billowing robes, made in the late Baroque estofado and bultos from the 19th century by artists such as Jose Benito Ortega and Santo Nino Santero.
Furniture
The furniture collection features an elaborate missal stand of hardwoods, tortoiseshell, bone, ebony and silver wire, made between the late 17th and early 18th century in Puebla, Mexico. A pine chest from the late 18th-cenutry represents the six-board dovetail construction that was common in Spain and its colonies and bears traces of pigment, proving furniture in colonial New Mexico was painted in bright colors.
Textiles
Textiles range from tapestries like the richly decorated Rio Grande Saltillo blanket to embroidered silk shawls imported to the Spanish colonies from China and the Philippines.
Utilitarian
Among the art museum’s utilitarian objects are hand tools, weapons, spurs, cattle brands, candlesticks, tobacco flasks and strike-a-lights. Precious objects in the Utilitarian collection include crucifixes and rosaries, rings, earrings, fans and hair combs.
Colonial House
Arguably the most significant acquisition is the Museum’s colonial house. The entire wooden colonial house, built in Mexico around 1780, is located near the Museum’s entrance and provides a dramatic contrast with John Gaw Meem’s later interpretation of the architecture of Spain’s northernmost colony.
Be sure to stop by Curtin-Paloheimo Gift Shop. Santa Fe art as well as other creative items with a local flavor are available to purchase.
Travel Tips
- In addition to its collection, the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art hosts rotating exhibits throughout the year that support its mission.
- The Museum of Spanish Colonial Art is ADA compliant.