Un nuevo arte en movimiento para la ostentación social: los primeros coches novohispanos y las ordenanzas del gremio de carroceros de la ciudad de México de 1706 Translated title: A New Art in Movement for Social Ostentation: The First Carriages Made in New Spain and the 1706 Ordinances of the Mexico City Guild of Coach-builders

Abstract

La carrocería novohispana, surgida en el siglo XVI, tiene sus antecedentes en la carretería, vinculada a la propia Conquista, y en el envío desde España en la misma centuria de los primeros coches de caballos, lo que generalizó su uso fuera de Europa. De inmediato se hicieron también en la Nueva España, desarrollando su manufactura e institucionalizando su uso en el XVII, de forma paralela a lo ocurrido en la metrópoli, para abastecer a las elites sociales de un nuevo tipo de obra de arte con el cual proclamar de forma ostentosa su preeminencia política, económica y social. Para atender la enorme demanda de coches y sistematizar la profesión, se desgajó en 1706 del de carpinteros el gremio de carroceros de la ciudad de México, cuyas primeras ordenanzas son analizadas comprándolas con las españolas para comprender su significado.

Translated abstract

Coach building in New Spain, whose origins go back to the sixteenth century, has antecedents both in wagon making-going back to the Conquest itself-and in the arrival, later in the same century, of the first horse-drawn carriages, which signaled the generalization of their use beyond the confines of Europe. There was little delay in efforts to manufacture such items in New Spain too, and the industry was further developed and institutionalized during the following century, in parallel with developments in the Metropolis. Thus the demand of social elites for a new kind of art form serving to proclaim ostentatiously their political, economic and social preeminence was satisfied. In order to attend to the enormous demand for coaches and to systematize the trade, a guild of coach builders was formed as an excision of Mexico City's guild of carpenters. The guild's first ordinances are analyzed here in comparison with their Spanish equivalents with the aim of helping appreciate their significance.