ABSTRACT
The disasters that affected the Spanish-American territories in the modern age were numerous and shocking. From the 1535 Pichincha eruption in Quito to the earthquakes and other catastrophic events that devastated small and large towns in Peru, Chile and Ecuador throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, these calamities of natural origin were lived by local communities as moments of deep spiritual crisis. Hence, religious imagery played a central role in the diffusion of cults and devotional practices, and miraculous episodes in the hagiography of saints shown – in paintings, statues and engravings – the moment of divine intervention before or during a disaster. The present essay intends to examine the presence of religious images on disasters in Spanish America, with a particular focus on those that are connected to the European figurative sources on this topic. These images seem to be the result of transposition of iconographic models imported from Europe, sometimes mediated by local visual culture. Through a cross-reading of images and texts (religious books, travel journals and chronicles), this chapter will explore the heterogeneous catalogue of imagery used to ward off and remember disasters, analysing a range of iconographic and functional aspects.
