Lina María Garzón – “Art” and “Artist” in the Eyes of New Granadans in the 18th and 19th Centuries.

This research project engages in a historical analysis of the concepts of “art” and “artist” during the late colonial period in the New Granada Viceroyalty. In order to examine how these notions were understood in Quito, Popayán, and other surrounding areas during the late XVIIIth and early XIXth centuries, the specific case of the painter Manuel de Samaniego and study written sources like court cases, journals, and contracts, produced by the so-called “ilustrados neogranadinos” and by the painter himself are analyzed. Thus, the way how certain people of the New Granada Viceroyalty saw and understood the paintings, altarpieces, and even treatises made by Samaniego is established.

Lina María Garzón is a historian that graduated from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. She has worked as a research assistant at the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History (ICANH) and as an art educator in the National Museum of Colombia and in the Independence Museum. She is currently the editorial assistant in the academic journal Fronteras de la Historia. She is also conducting her master’s degree at the Universidad de los Andes. Her research focuses on the conceptions of “artist” and “art” in the transition between the XVIIIth and the XIXth century.