Images, Idols, and Evangelists

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Paintings, sculptures, books, and buildings were instrumental in evangelization the Americas in the wake of the Spanish invasion - and conquests of Aztec Mexico and Inca Peru. In addition to introducing new kinds of objects and images to the native peoples of the Americas, evangelization in early-colonial Spanish America set forth new conceptualizations of how objects and images operated. Students in this course will study Aztec, Inca, and Spanish colonial visual culture, exploring the ways in which works of art and architecture gave shape to systems of religious belief.