Did you know that the first American Revolution took place in New Mexico?
New Spain: c. 1521 – 1821
A pendant triptych in boxwood and feathers reveals the dynamic global interactions between Europe and the Americas in the 1500s
A Renaissance miniature in wood and feathers
The early art of Hispaniola is important because the island was the first point of long-term contact between the cultures of Europe, America, and Africa.
Hispaniola’s early colonial art, an introduction
These challenging paintings visually separate Indigenous Americans from the Spanish elite; most were exported.
Francisco Clapera, set of sixteen casta paintings
A manuscript tells the Indigenous side of a historic battle in Aztec Tenochtitlan.
Remembering the Toxcatl Massacre: The Beginning of ...
Throughout the colonial period, this reproductive medium allowed for the wide circulation of images to a broad public, creating a shared religious and political culture.
Prints and Printmakers in Colonial New Spain
This ivory sculpture of Jesus traveled between three continents.
Christ Crucified, a Hispano-Philippine ivory
Santiago became an important saint in New Spain, recast to convey Spanish dominance over the Indigenous population in the sixteenth century.
Saintly violence? Santiago on Horseback
The first book ever printed by an American author was Rhetorica Christiana by Diego de Valadés, who was born in Mexico to a Spanish conquistador father and an indigenous mother.
Engravings in Diego de Valadés’s Rhetorica Christiana
Find out what happens to classical Renaissance architecture when it arrives in New Spain.
Classical Architecture in Viceregal Mexico
Once there was a color so valuable that emperors and conquistadors coveted it, and so did kings and cardinals. Artists went wild over it. Pirates ransacked ships for it.
The Bug That Had the World Seeing ...
What does the music of heaven sound like?
What does the music of heaven sound ...
After Columbus landed on Hispaniola in 1492, items from the Americas were shipped to Europe where they were perceived as exotic items of wonder and fascination.
The Medici collect the Americas
Built by Catholic monks to convert the indigenous population, these spaces combined pre-Hispanic and European forms.
Mission churches as theaters of conversion in ...
Why are these murals in the cloister of Acolman painted in only black and white?
Murals from New Spain, San Agustín de ...
The Conceptionists were founded for elite, pure-blooded Spanish women. This nun just took her vows.
Crowned Nun Portrait of Sor María de ...
The beguiling—and tragic—story of the Carvajal family of crypto-Jews, is illuminated by the manuscripts Luis made.
The manuscripts of Luis de Carvajal
The original image of the Virgin of Guadalupe was miraculously produced—this mother-of-pearl version was man-made.
Miguel González, The Virgin of Guadalupe
A continuous narrative, this shows three different parts of the story, each in a different part of the landscape.
Baltasar de Echave Ibía, The Hermits
The Spanish reused the stones of pagan temples to build their new capital atop the Aztec city, Tenochtitlan.
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