Jesuit winemaking and art production in northern New Spain

Abstract

This article presents new research on Jesuit visual culture in northern New Spain, situating Santa María de las Parras (founded 1598) as an important site where the Jesuits and secular landowners became involved in the lucrative business of winemaking. Viticulture in Parras helped transform this mission settlement into a thriving center of consumption. The Jesuits fostered alliances with Spanish and Tlaxcalan Indians to serve their religious and temporal interests, as these patrons donated funds to decorate chapels in the Jesuit church of San Ignacio. This financial support allowed the Society to purchase paintings by prominent artists in Mexico City and import them to Parras. The Jesuits arranged their chapels in a carefully ordered sequencing of images that promoted Ignatian spirituality and echoed iconographic decoration programs in Mexico City and Rome.