Malaspina Expedition

The Malaspina Expedition was a voyage spanning five years which circumnavigated the American continents. A Spanish ship consisting of scientists and artists catalogued and analyzed land, sea, people, flora, and fauna in an attempt to determine the social and political climate of Spain's Pacific Territories. The commander, Alejandro Malaspina, was Italian born. In 1774, at the age of twenty he joined the Spanish Royal Navy. Artistic works were integral to scientific study. Trained artists and painters often accompanied expeditions to create high quality drawings and paintings of plants, animals, and indigenous people. Upon his return to Spain, Malaspina was initially welcomed in celebration. This was short-lived, however, as Malaspina became embroiled in political intrigue and was subsequently arrested. He served seven years and returned to Italy upon his release. The writings and drawings from the expedition were scattered, and Malaspina’s account was not published until the nineteenth century.

Brief History

The Spanish dominated a large part of the Pacific Ocean for two centuries after Ferdinand Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe (1519–1522). A series of Spanish ships located several islands and led to a lucrative trade route between Mexico and the Philippines. The monopoly ended when other European countries sought to expand their empires. An fierce rivalry ensued. There were wars to seize power and gain control of seas, trade routes, and territories. The main players were Spain, Portugal, France, and England. With the Age of Enlightenment the purpose of expeditions evolved to include scientific discovery as well as political and economic gain. Nations directed expeditions to catalogue the natural world.

The Spanish Indies in the late eighteenth century was immense and encompassed all of Central America, the islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico, most of South America, part of North America, half of Hispaniola, and the Philippines. Spain sent four expeditions to survey the natural history of its territories: The Royal Botanical Expeditions to Chile and Peru (1777–1788), New Granada (1783–1816), New Spain (1787–1803), and the Malaspina Expedition to the Americas and Asia (1789–1794). Botanists assisted by artists were tasked with analyzing the flora and fauna of the Spanish Indies to determine any economic potential and also to create a collection for the Royal Natural History Cabinet and Madrid's Royal Botanical Garden. More than 800 illustrations were produced. The voyage which sought to imitate the legendary expeditions of Cook and Laperouse was likely the most ambitious of the eighteenth century. The crew consisted of artists, scientists, collectors, and sailors. Two ships led by Malaspina and Jose Bustamante crossed South America, travelling along the Pacific coast all the way to Alaska and Canada, then to the Philippines, New Guinea, New Zealand, and Australia. A wealth of information was gathered including botanic catalogs, ethnographic studies, and coastal surveys. Malaspina returned to Spain intent on writing a multi-volume account of the expedition; however, his imprisonment delayed publication of much of the expedition’s documentary accounts. Various participants published their own journals and discoveries, but a full account of the expedition, including Malaspina’s journal was not compiled and published until the late twentieth century.

Overview

Alejandro Malaspina entered the Spanish navy in 1774 as a midshipman. By thirty years of age he had circumnavigated the globe, proving his expertise for sailing and scientific investigation. Back in Spain he and Jose Bustamante submitted a bold proposal to the Ministry of Marine to survey the Spanish territories in the Americas and Philippines. They were to create hydrographic charts for Spanish merchants and warships. The expedition would also take note of the economic and political stance of Spanish territories. The proposal was granted, and in 1789 Malaspina and Bustamante set sail from Cadiz in two specially built corvettes (small warships). The ships contained an eclectic crew of scientists and artists from various countries along with the latest surveying and scientific equipment.

A naturalist is a person who studies or is an expert in natural history, especially a zoologist (one who studies animals) or botanist (one who studies plants). Naturalism in the eighteenth century was a highly visual field. Naturalists of the era were trained in observation and working with multimedia of plants, texts, and images. There were standardized ways of observing nature and a methodology of creating imagery. A botanist would gather plants to observe their flowering structure. This would then be described in text and illustrations.

Artistic works were integral to scientific study. Trained artists and painters often accompanied expeditions to create high-quality drawings and paintings of plants, animals, and indigenous people. This collaboration was important as naturalists went to great lengths to train and supervise artists in the correct taxonomy and documentation of botanical subjects. Each image required input from various team members as collaboration often included collectors, naturalists, and several artists working in difficult and sometimes hazardous conditions. Producing an image was time consuming and required careful thought and review by the team. The end product would be sent thousands of miles across the sea to imperial administrators. The Spanish naturalists Hipolito Ruiz and José Pavon , who travelled to Chile and Peru, described having suffered exhaustion, hunger, thirst, nakedness, risk of being devoured by wild animals, and falls from precipices and mountains, among other calamities.

The group commissioned by Malaspina consisted of artists and painters who were changed routinely throughout the journey. The artists compiled a collection of over 800 drawings of plant, animal, and human studies. One of the first was Seville native, Jose del Pozo Ximénez. He was described as a good perspective painter with a sound knowledge of geometry. He was a perspective and portrait artist who produced a large catalogue of water color drawings of plants and animals during the voyage. His drawings of people in their environments showed much skill. For various reasons, Jose del Pozo was ordered to return back to Spain from the port of El Callao. Another skilled painter was José Guío y Sánchez. He was highly praised by the naturalists yet was discharged by Malaspina in Mexico after suffering heat exhaustion. Two Italian painters held in high regard by Malaspina were John Ravenet y Bunel and Fernando Brambila.

Bibliography

Bleichmar, Daniela. Visible Empire: Botanical Expeditions and Visual Culture in the Hispanic Enlightenment. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2012. Print.

Bockelman, Brian. "Along the Waterfront: Alejandro Malaspina, Fernando Brambila, and the Invention of the Buenos Aires Cityscape, 1789–1809." Journal of Latin American Geography 11.(2012): 61–88. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Jan. 2016.

Inglis, Robin. Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Northwest Coast of America. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2008. Print.

López Luján, Leonardo, and Saburo Sugiyama. "Los Expedicionarios De Malaspina Llegan a Teotihuacan (1791)." Arqueologia Mexicana 22.131 (2015): 22–33. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Jan. 2016.

Puig-Samper, M.A. (2012) "Illustrators of the New World. The Image in the Spanish Scientific Expeditions of the Enlightenment". Culture & History Digital Journal 1(2): m102. Print

"The Malaspina Expedition." Designing America -Spain's Imprint in the US. Fundación Consejo España - Estados Unidos, 2014. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.

Vermeulen, Han F. Before Boas: The Genesis of Ethnography and Ethnology in the German Enlightenment. Lincoln: U of Nebraska, 2015. Print.

Williams, Glyndwr. Naturalists at Sea: Scientific Travellers from Dampier to Darwin. N.p.: Yale UP, 2013. Print.