|
|
|
Culture
Since pre-Columbian times, Bolivia had a
great cultural and intellectual life.
Architecture, ceramics, temples and other
symbols scattered throughout the country
give testimony to a culture with an advanced
social organization. The Incas brought a new
system of roads and aqueducts, hanging bridges,
and surgical and medical practices. Other
Incaic influences included new designs
and geometric shapes on clay objects;
new rituals and songs were also introduced.
Centuries later, with the arrival of the Spaniards,
the age of the horse and the wheel begun.
The era is also characterized by churches,
and images, woodcarving and embroidery.
During the colonial period, the intellectual
center was the city of Sucre; it was also
known then as Charcas or Chuquisaca.
Important scientific and legal works
were written there. One example is El
Arte de los Metales, or The Art of Metalworking
by the Spanish priest Alvaro Alonso Barba, written in 1640.
Another work concerns silver mining at Potosi,
written by Nicolas de Martinez Arzanz during
the 16th century.
Religious subjects and majestic portraits were
the earliest forms of oil painting in Bolivia.
Today, there is more of a tendency toward an
art of manners and in this arena the following
painters are notable: Arturo Reque Meruvia,
Victor Cuevas Pabon, David Crespo Gasteld,
Antonio Sotomayor, the muralist Roberto
Berdecio and Gil Coimbra.
|
| Choose your destination |
|
|
|
Learn Spanish in Sucre.
