Ivory and feathers: St Jeromes across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans

Abstract

On both sides of the Pacific, seventeenth-century ivory carvers in Manila and feather workers in New Spain produced triptychs depicting St Jerome: the feather-backed triptychs made in Mexico are based on the Filipino-made ivories, which may be based on Flemish prints. These related objects made variously of paper, wood, feathers and ivory, reveal the mechanics of early modern globalization, the ways in which copying at a distance allowed for a realignment of economies of labor and materials, affording opportunities for artists both to imagine and respond to faraway consumers, and to experiment with acts of appropriation and creative assembly in a newly global art market.