Authority, Identity, and Visual Culture in Colonial Latin America

After the Spanish invasion, indigenous cultures of the Americas endured profound changes including the suppression of religious practices and reconfiguration of socio-political systems. During the succeeding centuries of colonial rule, diverse members of a highly stratified society relied upon cultural objects to contend for social, economic, political, and religious authority. This course considers the ways in which objects of visual culture in Mexico and Peru functioned as leveraging tools, means to assert authority and identity, ways to maintain the status quo, and forms of resistance with emphasis on the roles various participants played in artistic production and reception.