Ornament and meaning in colonial mural paintings: the representation of plants in rural churches of Oruro

Abstract

There is an important amount of colonial churches in the Department of Oruro that preserve the mural paintings made within the context of the evangelization. They are abundant with a vegetal form of ornamentation. This research delves into some similarities and differences of five of these rural temples, searching in their phitomorphic motives the diversity of symbolic, referential and ritual connotations that may have influences their making, as well as their subsequent resignifying process of the local participants of this religious communication. It inquires into the configuration of a visual language in compliance with an 18th century Andean Christianity, one that trespasses the limits between figure and ornament, between reference and experience.