Constructing from Absence. A Historiographic Approach to Francisco de la Maza in Las piras funerarias en la historia y en el arte de México

Abstract

This text seeks to reflect on the symbolic possibilities of absence, in order to propose an epistemic inquiry that will allow me to evaluate, from a new perspective, the contributions of Francisco de la Maza, particularly in Las piras funerarias en la historia y en el arte de México (1946). I start from the assumption that this work deserves a more detailed historiographical review and that, in fairness, it would be far better appreciated if it were to be analyzed within the framework of its author’s opera omnia. What I propose to do in these pages is rather more limited; it consists of building a scaffolding through which we can elaborate on the structure with which De la Maza made a series of enunciations on ephemeral art and thereby laid the foundations for formulating knowledge of the latter.