The Viceroyalty Museum exhibits The Art of Saving in New Spain

Silvia Chávez González

Correspondent

La Jornada Newspaper, Monday, June 9, 2025, p. 5

Tepotzotlán, Mexico, The National Museum of the Viceroyalty (MNV) opens to the public the exhibition The Art of Storing in New Spain, which displays austere travel furniture used during the Conquest, which in the 17th and 18th centuries began to be used as fixed furniture intended to house belongings or decorate the spaces of the Iberian population.

Eva María Ayala Canseco, director of the MNV; Patricia Zapata Villasana, the venue's deputy technical director; Itzamara Vargas Machiavelo, curator of the exhibition; and guests participated last Friday in the opening of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) exhibition through the venue. The exhibition will remain open until July 20.

Vargas Machiavelli explained that in the early years of the Conquest, the furniture was very austere; however, it allowed for the transportation of the necessary equipment for the Spanish who, after the occupation of Tenochtitlan, began to settle for longer periods of time, which required creating their own spaces, in keeping with their customs and habits.

In this way, furniture that was once travel-friendly and austere took up a permanent place in offices, bedrooms, living rooms, and hallways in buildings where the conquistadors began to live.

By the 17th and 18th centuries, they were already decorative furniture, to which were added carpets, tables, chairs, and other items that also provided comfort and luxury, Vargas Machiavelli commented.

The art of keeping in New Spain exhibits 18 pieces from the 17th and 18th centuries, including wooden chests with wrought iron fittings and decoration, leather-covered wooden chests with iron fittings and iron, and cast and polychrome iron treasure chests, as well as the sculpture Taller de San José (Workshop of Saint Joseph), made of carved, polychrome and upholstered wood, and the oil on canvas painting La inquietud del conocimiento (The Restlessness of Understanding), among other objects.

The thematic cabinet exhibition is organized into two sections: one dedicated to the travel furniture that initially arrived from New Spain and later became permanent fixtures and was used to decorate the space along with other objects.

The second includes furniture construction materials, as well as their uses, and the work of the trades involved in their creation, with the aim of understanding why storage in New Spain furniture was an art.

The exhibition is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a ticket price of 100 pesos and the usual discounts. On Sundays, admission is free for Mexicans and foreigners residing in Mexico.