The first historical testimonies
The first signs come from cave painting: later testimonials
were the cartographies of the island, combined with impressions and
myths developed by the chroniclers. Along the long historic path,
the mural paintings executed, in the most part anonymously, on the
interior and exterior of houses from the colonial period must be mentioned.
On the basis of their character and craftsmanship, they have to be
labeled "folk art". Natural pigments and some inferior quality
colors were used, and the later the paintings were executed, the more
complex and higher quality the techniques.
The 15th and 16th centuries
Unlike the other Latin American colonies, the island
during the 15th and 16th centuries was very poor and neglected economically
and therefore also of little significance culturally. Foreign artists
streamed to Cuba, the "key to the New World", and a great
number of paintings were brought from Spain to furnish chapels and
churches. With the appearance of the names of the panel painters Juan
Camargo and Juan de Salas y Argüillo, it is evident that the
art of carving figures of saints had not yet been replaced by painting.
In the course of the following century the island began to blossom
due to the fleets which put in on their route taking treasures from
Mexico to Spain.
Military might shared power with the clerics, who,
concerned with the furnishing and adornment of the churches, promoted
the making of copies of religious works imported from the metropolis,
without showing any interest in the actual creation of any such works.
Art had a cult function before it became an expression of the culture
in any real sense. Only a few works from these distant years have
survived to the present. There are only very imprecise references
in documents, so that a large number of anonymous works exist today,
and an equally long list of unknown artists.
History
