What is Hybrid Art?
Hybrid art is an art style that developed when the Spanish came to conquer Latin America. The art style consisted of mixing together native practices with the Spaniards style. This technique was used as a way to help the Spanish spread their religious beliefs of christianity. A popular art that was used was a traditional native art form known as plumeria, or feather mosaics which was a well practiced traditional native art form known and, was adapted for depictions of christian subjects. These pieces use parts of nature like feathers to show important images of people that the Spanish wanted the Native people to understand that these people are important; many times natives would use feather work to mark a person or item with power or access to the gods.
When it comes to why hybrid art was made it was put simply in a text that the colonizers' whole purpose was to maintain the colonies, they felt the best way to control them was to pacify the people by promoting and imposing their language, religion, culture, and institution. This way they are communicating with the Native people, and expressing a new way of life but also keeping their normal traditions intact with new styles to help converge them to the spanish’s liking.
Feather Mosaics
Saint John the Evangelist (New Spain, 17th century), feather mosaic and paper on copper (Collection Daniel Liebsohn, all images courtesy Himer Verlag unless indicated)
the pantocrator feather mosaic, from tepotzotlan
Casta Paintings
”the presumption that mixing will manifest itself physically and thus be visually apparent. These paintings seem to argue that one can, quite literally, see the results of cross-cultural (cross-racial?) interaction. That Casta paintings do not merely depict racial mixing, but rather, through their interest in status and purity, provide a commentary upon it is not insignificant.”
Casta Paintings
Casta paintings showed people the effects of cross-cultural interaction and used this kind of painting to visually inform the public almost of the dangers of these interactions, by showing how it affects the person's status in society and the purity of that person and their family when racially mixing. The indigenous people would long to be sought out and be chosen by the white spanish person; because they are considered to be the ones who carry this civilized way of life, a good way of living, they depicted that by showing a great life for those of lighter pale skin. Casta paintings also served as a warning for the white spanish american people to not taint their bloodlines by “mixing” with the other cultures. We can see that in the paintings the appearance shows the status and well being based off families and how mixed races each family is.