The Captive Eye. Ornamentation and Marquesan Tattos in the Work of Miguel Covarrubias

Abstract

This essay examines the intellectual and ethnographic sources of Miguel Covarrubias regarding Marquesan ornaments and tattoos. In particular, I analyze his understanding of the design of ornaments in the Marquesan art and the development of their motifs, as well as Covarrubias’ position regarding late nineteenth century anthropology and morphology, from which the so-called “biology of ornaments” derives. Through the study of a selection of Covarrubias' drawings and sketches of Marquesan art, it is possible to reconstruct the creative process behind the illustrations that he made for a 1935 special edition of Typee, Herman Melville’s first novel.