Abstract

The missionary practices of the Jesuits during the 17th and 18th centuries, and those of the Franciscans from the last decades of the 18th century in Chiloe, created conditions for the development of a particular form of relationship between religious images and sacred spaces. The availability of documentation allows us to understand more about the missionary activity in the archipelago, such as the existence of chapels devoid of images, or the presence in temples of privately owned religious sculptures. Few records of similar conditions in other Latin American regions remain. Previous studies have highlighted the particularities of religious architecture and sculpture in Chiloe; the aim of this paper is to address the sacred space, missionary activity, and religious image in an articulated way.