ARTH 320, Entangled Worlds: Art and Architecture in Spain and Colonial Latin America 1500-1700. The role of visual art and architecture within Catholic, Habsburg Spain and colonial Latin America during the early modern period is surveyed, with an emphasis on transculturation from the hybrid forms produced under Islamic mudejar influence to colonial mestizaje in the encounters of Christian visual culture with that of indigenous America. We will discuss the arrival of the Renaissance in Spain and the adoption of classical architecture and Italian Renaissance modes of painting by Charles V and Philip II, the painted distortions of El Greco, the Spanish tradition of hyper-realistic wooden sculpture, as well as the paintings of Ribera, Zurbarán, Murillo, and Velázquez. We will end by discussing mission architecture and decoration in early colonial America and the hybrid forms created by the fusion of Spanish and Amerindian culture, and finish up our survey with a discussion of impressive urban cathedrals and secular palaces in Mexico and Peru.
