Pair of room dividers in painted paper on fabric, mixed media, gilt and gold goffering. Colonial work. Mexico. 18th century. Room dividing screens were brought to New Spain from Japan in the legendary galleon Manila in the late 17th century. In 1614 the Japanese shogun Tokugawa Leyasa sent a series of these panels as a present to the viceroy Luis de Velasco. Later, the screens were also made in Mexico City and Puebla and were a typical feature in upper class homes. The themes depicted on the screens varied between mythological, allegorical and historical, or patterns of scrolls, emblems and polite celebrations. Examples of comparable room dividing screens are those found among the collection at the Kyushu National Museum in Fukuoka, Japan, or the one kept in the Museo Nacional de San Carlos in Mexico. Bibliography: MJ Schreffler, No Lord Without Vassals, No Vassals Without a Lord: The Royal Palace and the Shape of Kingly Power in Virregal Mexico City, in: Oxford Art Journal, 27th February de 2004, pp. 155-172. Gustavo Curiel, Los biombos novohispanos: Escenográficas de poder y transculturación en el ámbito doméstico (Chapter: Novo-Hispanic screens. Scenes of power and transculturation in the domestic ambit), from the book Viento detenido: Mitologías e historias en el arte de biombo (Wind:at a standstill, Mythology and stories in the art of the screen), Asociación Carso S. A.; Mexico City, 1999, pages. 9-23. J. J. Rishel y S. Stratton-Pruitt, editors. Latin American Art, 1492-1820, catalogue of the exhibition at the Museum of Philadelphia, 2007. There are some flaws and cracks. 201 x 268 cm. each.