Dixième séance du Séminaire international du Centre André-Chastel
New approaches to the analysis of Mesoamerican Teotihuacan materials from the Alphonse Pinart collection (MQB-JC)
Par Annabel Villalonga (Professeur, Université Autonome de Barcelone), invitée par Marion Forest
Présence d'Élodie Vaudry
Résumé
The presentation will begin with a brief overview of the formation, circulation, and itinerary of American heritage collections in France, from their arrival as curiosities linked to travel and exploration to their integration into institutions such as the Louvre, the musée du Trocadéro, the musée de l’Homme, and the present-day musée du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac. It will then focus on the main objective of our research: to examine the figure of Alphonse Louis Pinart (1852–1911), a French explorer, anthropologist, and linguist, best known for his expeditions and collections from Alaska and the Northwest Coast of the United States, but who also traveled through northern Mexico, the Gulf Coast, and the state of Guerrero between 1878 and 1882. Our project adopts a multidisciplinary approach to a specific part of his Mexican archaeological collection. In particular, we focus on eight stone masks and 259 Teotihuacan terracotta figurines, currently housed at the Musée du Quai Branly, but whose museum trajectory dates back to their registration at the Musée du Trocadéro in 1878. Analysis of the objects will not begin until the end of April, and therefore this presentation will focus on preliminary results derived from bibliographic and archival research.