Colonial Mother-of-Pearl Cabinet (1993.36)

In the Dallas Morning News on August 26, 1993, art critic Janet Kutner announced, "The Dallas Museum of Art has acquired a spectacular inlaid mahogany cabinet that is considered one of the most important examples of Spanish furniture in the world. Made during the late 17th century ..., the cabinet was purchased for the Dallas Museum of Art by The Eugene McDermott Foundation. It will be the centerpiece of the DMA's Museum of the Americas, the focal point of the new Nancy and Jake L. Hamon Building opening on Sept. 26." These few sentences hint at some of the many stories surrounding the Museum's Spanish colonial cabinet, stories about particular connections between the chest and the people who have owned it, given it, conserved it, displayed it, and delighted in it [1993.36].

The cabinet's first owner was Don Melchor Portocarrero, 3rd Count of Monclova, who was Viceroy of Peru from 1689 until 1715. Recent research indicates that the piece was made in the Portuguese colony of Goa, India. It was likely then shipped to the Spanish colonial city of Manila in the Philippines, where cargoes were combined from all over the Pacific to be shipped to Acapulco. The count probably commissioned the piece during his tenure as viceroy as a symbol of his elite status and that of his court. The viceregal court was the center of fashion and taste for Spanish colonial society.

The entire surface of the cabinet is covered with countless carefully cut pieces of mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell arranged in elaborate designs representing flowers and vegetation. The cabinet doors open to reveal shelves, drawers, and even a vaulted ceiling, all richly adorned with precious materials set in geometric patterns. The count quite likely would have displayed the chest with its doors open, full of his collections of valuable objects carefully arranged for the appreciation of privileged guests. The chest and its contents proclaimed the global economic power of Spain and Portugal in the late 17th century.

Doña Josefa de Portocarrero y Zamudio, the count's granddaughter, received the colonial cabinet as a wedding present from her father in 1771. The coat-of-arms of the 3rd Marquis de Torre Tagle, Doña Josefa's new husband, was added to the mother-of-pearl double-headed eagle crest that represented the Hapsburg dynasty, the ruling house of Austria and Spain at this time. Displaying the royal eagle indicated service and loyalty to the king. Thus, the cabinet asserts the political loyalty of the Tagle family and was passed down through the family, in whose possession it remained until the 1990s.

Acquired for the Dallas Museum of Art in 1993, the colonial cabinet was given to the Museum in honor of Carol and Richard Brettell. It is one of many objects given by Margaret McDermott in honor of people she admired. A highly symbolic work of art for the Dallas Museum of Art, the colonial cabinet was the crowning acquisition for the new Museum of the Americas. It exemplified a vision of American art as embracing the whole of the Americas, a vision the Museum staff worked to realize. Curators Charles Venable and Eleanor Harvey had been charged with expanding the Museum's holdings of colonial American objects and this was a glorious example.

Before its installation, the cabinet was carefully conserved by Barbara Roberts, the world's leading conservator for marquetry, in colloboration with John Dennis, the Dallas Museum of Art's conservator. This project was financed in part with a grant from The Getty Grant Program because the piece was considered to be of world importance. With regard to the conservation itself, John Dennis comments, "I must have cut sixty pieces of mother-of-pearl ... The smell of the shell being cut is very distinctive, sweet in a pleasant way." He traced the shapes of the missing parts and then cut the replacements. Barbara Roberts cleaned, polished, and re-glued the replacement mother-of-pearl shapes. 

The colonial mother-of-pearl cabinet has a commanding position on the fourth level of the Museum, in the Spanish colonial gallery. This grand and elegant work provokes astonished and delighted comments: "It is bright and beautiful. It is also big and mysterious," writes a student named Norberto. Another student comments, "It is a towering piece of art." For another: "It is so beautiful."

Elaine Higgins originally compiled a content chunk with the above text and a related image asset. During project wrap-up, I moved her note to #incomplete  Colonial Mother-of-Pearl Cabinet (1993.36)

Smartphone audio about Goa craftsmen

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Audio tour stop: Goa Cabinet

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VIDEO ASSETS  

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