24 LIGHT S FROM THE VICEREGAL AMERICA : SILVER MA STERWORKS 25

A Mexican Silver-gilt Chalice by Antón Dantés

Circa 1565-1575

Author
Antón Dantés

Mexico City
Circa 1565-1575

Gold-plated, cast, lathed, embossed, chiselled and gloss-punched silver

Measurements
Size: 33 cm high and 21 cm maximum width of the base

Weight
2.250 g.

Marks
AN/TES (with an inverted letter “N” and cast final letters “ES”), masculine right profile
head on o/M within the two crowned columns, nailed tower on a pillar in water and OÑA/
TE (both lines set part by a horizontal bar) and a little swan turned to the left inside an oval.
Four chiselled.

Provenance
Collection Arturo Lopez-Willshaw (Chile).
Sotheby Parker Bernet Monaco, 06-24-1976, lot 246.
Gallery J.Kugel. Paris, October 2004.
The Apelles Collection - Carlos Alberto Cruz, Chile - England.
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It consists of an open, slightly flared cup, and a superimposed rose (undercup) crowned by
a very prominent moulded fillet, and decorated with six embossed half figures; only five of
them are identifiable by their attributes: St. Andrew, St. John, St. Bartholomew, James, son
of Zebedee, and St. Augustine; the presence of six lugs reasonably helps to believe that it
originally carried some other pending chimes; over the convex area, there are four winged
cherubs´ heads. The shaft has an arquitectonic hexagonal double knot with two decreasing
bodies and both of them carry crests with pear-shaped ornaments and scallops; the larger
one houses niche mass male bearded heads, and feminine (the latter ones, veiled), whereas
in the smaller, all the little heads are equal, following the icon of a hairless (bald) male; at
the corners, there are free-standing unornamented balusters. The base has a circular contour
and a broad flange surrounded by “coffee beans”, which describe eight festoons in-plant,
by providing four semicircular fields, alternating with other four of the same segment,
although smaller; the surfaces of the latter includes the following scenes of Christ´s life:
the Visitation, Annunciation, St. Joseph and the angel Gabriel (Matthew: 1:18-25) and the
Nativity; whereas in the less developed ones, inside pointed gussets, the following busts are
represented: St. Peter, St. Paul, St. John the Baptist and St. Barbara.

In the upper portion of the base, hidden by the starting piece of the shaft, there are four
regulatory silverware marks printed, which attest its origin,1 the craftsman, as well as the
responsible of the marking. The key mark to determine where the chalice was engraved,
responds to the punch of Mexico City, consisting of collecting the usual elements of the
location: a male head turned to the left (right profile) on an o/M (abbreviation of the
name Mexico, by laying out the initial and final letter of its name) flanked by two stamped
columns with a three-pointed vegetal crown;2 next to this one, there is another one: OÑA/
TE, in addition to a third one with the shape of a tower nailed to a pillar in water. These
three signs are the marker´s mandatory requirements, a position responsible for attesting
with his personal punch (Oñate), of the artwork´s origin (Mexico), and that the fiscal rights
had been fulfilled, known as “the fifth” (tower). But, what does this marking reveals to
us, besides leading us to the Mexican capital? Because thanks to the presence of Oñate´s
personal punch, we might adjust the period during which the chalice was engraved, also
helped by the identification of the artwork´s craftsman, which we will comment below.

But, who was responsible for the chalice craftsmanship? The nominal mark accompanying
the former, along with the chiselled, gathers the name of DAN/TES (with the inverted
letter “N” and the last two cast letters “ES”, describing a tilted “8”). The interpretation of
this stamp undoubtedly leads us to identify it with Antón Dantes, originally from Seville,
although settled down in Mexico City since at least 1545 until 1577.3 He was a “masonry”
silversmith, and among his documented works, we know he engraved, together with his
colleague Martín Larios, some large chandeliers for the convent of Chihuautla (Southwest
of Puebla), and, thanks to the presence of his personal punch stamped in other works, we
assigned, some time ago, a paten from a private collection, a chalice-monstrance from the
Museo José Luis Bello y González, in Puebla de los Ángeles, and an alms dish (demand)
from the Museo Franz Mayer, in Mexico City,4 besides this chalice.
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All these pieces were contrasted by the marker Oñate, a still not well identified silversmith,
although one silversmith with this same surname, whose first name was Bernardino, appears
renting a store in 1576, after the approval, in 1563, to build several stores for the silversmiths´
rent in the street that extended from the Mint House as far as the corner situated opposite
the Hospital del Amor de Dios.5 Whether or not the mark corresponds to Bernardino de
Oñate, it is true that his performance as marker lasted several years, as he must have held the
position at least from about 1566 to 1572, in view of the abundant marking detected up to
date.6 And, as the documentary news endorse that Antón Dantes was certainly active from
1545 to 1577, we can take the chalice dating to the stage when the marker and craftsman
coincide in time: that is, the decade from about 1565 to 1575, a period also supported by
the art piece style.

In addition to these four marks, it has a fifth one, not matching the Mexican marking, but
the French control. It is a small sign with the shape of a swan (stamped twice: on the base
flange and on the cup fillet), which was stamped on those imported pieces coming from
public sales, since the 1st of July 1893. This means the chalice certainly remained in France
from that year onwards.

Its structure redirects to a classification and ornamentation characteristic of the mid-sixteenth

century, usual in mainland Spain, both in the silverware at Old Castile, and in those in
Seville and their sphere of influence. But what is surprising is that the lobed base model has
its closest known reference in Guatemala, as well as the presence of the arquitectural and
hexagonal double knot with baluster supports at the corners. Both combinations are found,
for instance, in an altarpiece cross which we have identified as a work by the silversmith
Pedro Suárez de Mayorga, bought some time ago7 by the County Museum of Art, Los Ángeles
(USA) or in another cross-reliquary by the same artist, belonging to the former convent
of Santo Domingo, in Tecpatán (Chiapas);8 both examples follow the scalloped design of
the base and the ornament based on “coffee beans” in the flange, which is repeated in the
Guatemalan chalice of the Várez Fisa collection (Madrid)9 and also in another chalice, now
found at the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston.10 All these formal and decorative coincidences
led us to think there was a stylistic current that, from the Peninsula (and from Seville),
spread to the capital of the Viceroyalty of New Spain (Mexico) and also to the capital of the
Kingdom of Guatemala.

Although the above mentioned pieces are of great artistic quality, the relieves of our chalice
outperforms the other iconographic motifs on those art pieces, because they are solved in
complex scenes, where landscape and architectural backgrounds are included, arranging the
figures with good perspective in compositions, and a firm and assertive drawing for their
outline. The icons in the knot are not usual in this type of art pieces, since the usual is to
resort to the representation of the Apostles, and not, as it is the case here, to secular heads
that are not related to religion. The fact that among the images of the pedestal, appears St.
Barbara´s bust (with the tower as emblem) makes us think the chalice originally belonged to
a temple devoted to this hagiographic dedication.
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Among all the pieces engraved by Antón Dantés and known up to date, this art piece that
now comes to light, the chalice, is undoubtedly the most significant work of art, for its
excellent technical implementation, weight and imponent dimensions. Certainly, a key
work for the history of Mexican silverware, and for its artist´s very positive appraisal. Besides,
it results revealing to confirm how Mexico, during the sixteenth century, complied with the
mandatory precept of stamping engraved silverware with four marks (exactly the amount of
marks it shows), when, in the other Viceroyalty (Peru), as far as we know, said rule has never
been completely complied with.

NOT E S

1. Concerning the Mexican marks, see Cristina Esteras Martín: Marcas de platería hispanoamericana. Siglos XIX-
XX. Editorial Tuero, Madrid, 1992.
2. This mark is repeated in the inner portion of the larger hexagonal knot and in the outer base of the undercup.
It is a variant of the location punch.
3. We identified him and studied his biography on several occasions, after assigning him his personal mark,
which had been uncollected, until 1989 (Cristina Esteras Martín:”Novohispanic Viceregal Silverware. 16th
and 17th Centuries”, in El Arte de la Platería Mexicana. 500 Años. Centro Cultural/Arte Contemporáneo,
Mexico, 1989-1990, pp. 81 and 122; Marcas de platería.., ob. cit., p. 7, nº 13 and 14; and “Presence of
Andalusians in Novohispanic Silverware (16th to 18th Centuries)”, in La Plata en Iberoamérica. Siglos XVI al
XIX. University of León (Spain) and Instituto de Antropología e Historia de México, 2008, pp. 296-298).
4. Cristina Esteras Martín: La platería del Museo Franz Mayer. Obras escogidas. Siglos XVI-XIX. Museo Franz
Mayer, Mexico, 1992, pp. 67-68, nº 8.
5. In Concepción Amerlinck de Corsi: “The Silversmiths in Novohispanic Social Life”, in La Plata en
Iberoamérica …, ob. cit., pp. 410-411. Perhaps, he was Cristóbal de Oñate´s son or relative, who inventoried
the jewells Hernán Cortés sent from Mexico to Spain on the 25th of September 1526 (quoted by José Luis
Martínez: Documentos Cortesianos.I. 1518-1525. Mexico, 1990, Volume I, p. 412).
6. See Cristina Esteras Martín: Marcas de platería.., ob. cit., pp. 7-9, nº 12 to 19.
7. On the 7th July, 2006 at Sotheby´s, London, lot 56.
8. Roberto Andreu Quevedo: “Colonial Silverware in Chiapas”, in Cinco siglos de plástica en Chiapas, Tuxtla
Gutiérrez, August-October 2000, pp. 246-247.
9. Cristina Esteras Martín: La platería de la Colección Várez Fisa. Obras escogidas. Siglos XV-XVIII. Madrid, 2000,
nº 14 (A), pp. 54-58.
10. It was acquired following our suggestion at Sotheby´s auction, Paris, on the 30th of October 2008, lot 171.