Alacena

Pérez de Aguilar's in his painting tilled "Alacena" (Cupboard), has created an illusion so masterfully that the wall has becomes a glass-fronted cupboard, complete with a key dangling from its lock, holding three shelves stacked with everyday household items. The viewers can see all the items like the chocolate pots, gourds, a coconut shell rimmed in silver, a blue-and-white porcelain plate, small loaves of bread, a honey jar with a spoon poking out from under its cloth, books, a stringed instrument, a palette, brushes,etc .The objects trace three separate cultural threads that had become entangled in colonial Mexico: the tompeate basket and drinking gourds speak to Indigenous craft, the porcelain plate arrived by galleon from China, and the chocolate jar and bottles are Spanish in form. Rather than staging a scene with people in it, the artist lets objects stand in. scholars who study casta painting and colonial visual culture, view this cupboard as a map of that society's hierarchy. The shelves themselves seem to echo the social ladder of the viceroyalty: the top shelf, given over to books, music, and the fine arts, aligns with the world of educated, elite Spanish creole culture, while the shelves below, with their local baskets, native gourds, and homely bread, gesture toward Indigenous and mestizo life. The painting isn't just a display of nice things arranged for visual pleasure; it's an inventory that mirrors the society of that time. The painting works on a simpler level too. It's an act of quiet virtuosity: a painter showing off that he can fool the eye, that a flat wall can seem to open into depth and glass and shadow, and that the humble contents of a household cupboard, seen closely enough, are worth the same careful attention as a saint or viceroy.