Main entry:

Edgerton, Samuel Y., author, artist.

Title & Author:

Theaters of conversion : religious architecture and Indian artisans in colonial Mexico / Samuel Y. Edgerton ; with photographs by Jorge Pérez de Lara ; drawings by Mark Van Stone, James E. Ivey, and the author.

Edition:

First edition

Publication:

Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press, [2001]

Description:

xvii, 350 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 27 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 299-344) and index.
Introduction : art as a tool of Christian conversion -- Chapter 1. The millennium of the Mendicant friars -- Chapter 2. The cross and the tree : the Christian convento as Indian cosmos -- Chapter 3. The arch and the cave : open chapels in the Yucatán -- Chapter 4. Indians and Renaissance art : Fray Pedro de Gante's School of Art at San José de Los Naturales -- Chapter 5. Christian murals by Indian artists -- Chapter 6. The convento as theater : medieval autos and nahua neixcuitilli -- Chapter 7. Stage and scenery -- Chapter 8. The cloister as theater : Adam and Eve lost in Aztec paradise -- Chapter 9. The convento as theater of memory -- Chapter 10. "El Dorado" : the desolate desert conventos of New Mexico, 1598-1700 -- Chapter 11. Religious architecture in "Those most remote provinces."

Summary:

Mexico's churches and conventos display a unique blend of European and native styles. Missionary Mendicant friars arrived in New Spain shortly after Cortes's conquest of the Aztec empire in 1521 and immediately related their own European architectural and visual arts styles to the tastes and expectations of native Indians. Right from the beginning the friars conceived of conventos as a special architectural theater in which to carry out their proselytizing. Over four hundred conventos were established in Mexico between 1526 and 1600, and more still in New Mexico in the century following, all built and decorated by native Indian artisans who became masters of European techniques and styles even as they added their own influence. The author argues that these magnificent sixteenth and seventeenth-century structures are as much part of the artistic patrimony of American Indians as their pre-Conquest temples, pyramids, and kivas. Mexican Indians, in fact, adapted European motifs to their own pictorial traditions and thus made a unique contribution to the worldwide spread of the Italian Renaissance. The author brings a wealth of knowledge of medieval and Renaissance European history, philosophy, theology, art, and architecture to bear on colonial Mexico at the same time as he focuses on indigenous contributions to the colonial enterprise. This ground-breaking study enriches our understanding of the colonial process and the reciprocal relationship between European friars and native artisans. -- from amazon.com.

Resources:
Contributor biographical information
Publisher description

ISBN:

0826322565
9780826322562

Subject:

Christian art and symbolism Mexico.
Church architecture Mexico.
Missionaries Mexico History.
Christian art and symbolism Mexico Modern period, 1500-
Christian art and symbolism Mexico Renaissance, 1450-1600.
Art chrétien Mexique 1450-1600 (Renaissance)
Architecture religieuse Mexique 16e siècle.
Missionnaires Mexique Histoire.
Art chrétien Mexique 17e siècle.
Architecture religieuse Mexique 17e siècle.
Architecture chrétienne Mexique.
Christian art and symbolism Modern period
Christian art and symbolism
Church architecture
Missionaries
Kerkgebouwen.
Kloosters.
Indianen.
Mexico

Form/genre:

Informational works
History
Documents d'information.

Added entries:

Pérez de Lara, Jorge, photographer.
Van Stone, Mark, artist.
Ivey, James E., artist.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 217637
Call No.: NA5253 .E3 2001
Status: Available