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| Figure 5 Emilio Piani (b. ca. 1812), Un Ingenio en Cuba, 1839. Oil on canvas. 29 3/8" x 36 3/8". (Courtesy, Museo de Bellas Artes de Cuba, Havana.) This picture depicts a typical nineteenth-century Cuban ingenio before the introduction of steam power mills. At the center of the picture is the mill and boiling house. Driven by oxen, the mill pressed the juice out of the freshly cut cane. The extracted juice was then boiled to produce syrup and poured into clay jars to dry. Holes in the bottoms of the jars allowed the darkest, thickest liquid (molasses) to settle while the remainder hardened into a sugar cone. Standing and lounging by a pile of firewood are criollo overseers or technicians and two slaves. The building to the left may be the home of the owner or the manager of the ingenio. Distant plumes of smoke on the left mark the sites of other ingenios. |
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