The captive and the spoils
Among the raiders' spoils are looted religious objects and a white woman taken captive. Della Valle drew on the literary tales of such captives, the cautivas.
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La vuelta del malón
Ángel Della Valle · 1892
painting · Naturalism
NudityRead the context
La vuelta del malón shows a raiding party returning. Among the raiders' spoils are a woman taken captive and looted religious objects, and the captive is a white woman. Della Valle drew on the literary tales of captives, the cautivas. He painted it in 1892, bound for the world's fair in Chicago.
Details
Begin with the captive, then look at the looted religious objects among the spoils. The Chicago fair of 1893, the World's Columbian Exposition, was held to mark four hundred years since Columbus reached the Americas. Scholars have read the painting as an image that served the campaigns against Indigenous peoples, so it is worth asking what it asks you to feel about each group.
In its time
1892
Books from this period
Where it hangs
National Museum of Fine Arts, Argentina
In context
Bound for Chicago
Painted in 1892, it was bound for the world's fair in Chicago, held to mark four hundred years since Columbus reached the Americas. Scholars have since read it as an image that served the campaigns against Indigenous peoples.
On these book covers
Book covers use a cropped detail.