The Tapada Limena, (or the covered woman of Lima), was a phenomenon that existed in Lima, Peru, from the 15th to mid-19th Centuries. Aristocratic white women (criollos), a tiny minority in colonial Peru, wore a skirt and shawl (saya y manto) when going out. The manto was held over the face, revealing one eye only, and afforded the women anonymity. In most aspects of life these upper-class women were tightly supervised, and the customs and norms of Lima were very restrictive. This costume however, would be worn by women when they went to mass every morning, and also as they promenaded in the afternoon. They would then flirt and engage in intelligent and candid conversation with men, never revealing their identity.
Many attempts by religious and civic officials were made to ban this form of dress, based on the belief that such anonymity would allow immorality to flourish. Scholars writing about and analysing this history talk about European and North American visitors being scandalised by Tapadas, finding their resemblance to Arab women disturbing. Others pointed to their resemblance to the Catholic nun, rendering their assertive, sexual presence very unsettling. Further, men worried about the possibility of unknowingly flirting with their own wives or daughters, or that there may not be an upper-class woman under the veil, but a slave, or a native woman. Or a man.
By the time colonialism ended in Peru in 1821, this form of dress had all but disappeared. Not because of protest or scandal, but because women wanted to embrace French fashion, and link themselves to symbols of progress and national independence. The photographs on which my paintings are based were created in the 1860s-1870s, when the custom of the Tapada had completely disappeared. There are no known photographs from earlier times of actual Tapadas; the face, hidden by the veil, made the women anonymous, so they were not suitable subjects for studio portraiture. In later decades, as in these examples, the outfit was seen as 'historical costume' and became a profitable subject for photographers seeking to capture ethnic and racial 'types'.
Image 1: Tapada Limena #1, after albumen silver carte de visite by Courret Hermanos, ca. 1870, 2017, oil on canvas, 40 x 40 cm.
Image 2: Tapada Limena #2, after albumen silver carte de visite by Courret Hermanos, ca. 1870, 2016, oil on canvas, 40 x 40 cm.
Image 3: Tapada Limena #3, after albumen silver carte de visite by Villroy L. Richardson, ca. 1865-ca. 1875, 2016, oil on canvas, 60 x 60 cm.
Notes on photographers:
Courret Hermanos. Company of brothers Eugenio Courret and Aquiles Courret. French photographers. Eugenio arrived Lima, Peru 1861 and worked there until his return to France in the 1880s.
Villroy L. Richardson, active 1859-1895. North American painter and photographer. Arrived Lima, Peru 1859 and worked there until ca. 1875.
References:
McElroy, Keith, "La Tapada Limena: The Iconology of the Veiled Woman in 19th-Century Peru", History of Photography, vol. 5, no. 2, April 1981, pp. 133-149.
Poole, Deborah, Vision, Race and Modernity, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1997.