Typology of the Artistic Ironwork and Door in Cuzco, Arequipa, La Antigua and Cartagena de Indias as a Symbol of Social Status During the Colonial Period

Abstract

This academic paper is the result of field research carried out during the years 2017 and 2018 in the cities of La Antigua, Cartagena de Indias, Cuzco and Arequipa. Its objective is to analyze from a typological and iconographic perspective the doors decorated with artistic ironworks of Spanish-Moorish influence, as well as the subsequent disconnection between the strictly functional and the original iconic value. The fundamental problem of analysis is the relation between production and symbolic value of ironworks are identified as objects of utilitarian art, as material testimonies of the social, political and economic framework of colonial society between the c. XVI and early c. XIX. The influence of organized and officialized guilds in blacksmithing in the style and technical development of colonial ironworks is also highlighted. Through the photographic record made in the four cities, the iconographic analysis and the consultation of historical written sources; an explanatory proposal is presented as a main conclusion by which these functional-aesthetic objects lost meaning of status associated with dominant classes to be chosen much later by criteria of taste and tradition by subaltern classes.