The Florentine Codex contains an unparalleled wealth of information regarding the people and culture of central Mexico immediately preceding the Conquest and its discussion of the Conquest itself. View pictures and descriptions of the...

View pictures and read descriptions of the oldest surviving featherwork from colonial Mexico in this essay.

After the Conquest, Spanish colonizers' first task was to convert the indigenous peoples to Christianity and eliminate their religious beliefs. Painted murals within their missions demonstrate the great fear and urgency of the...

The influence of Asian art on colonial Latin America is particularly evident in viceregal textiles, ceramics, and furniture. Some examples are the resplendent biombos, or folding screens, made in Mexico beginning in the seventeenth...

Miguel Cabrera was one of the most celebrated and prolific artists of viceregal Mexico in the eighteenth century. View pictures of "The Virgin of the Apocalypse" and read about the iconography in this essay.

The term Islamic is used here to define the art and material culture of those lands where the dominant religion is Islam, the religion revealed to the prophet Muhammad in seventh century Arabia. The Islamic lands have encompassed at...

Mission churches, which followed a similar architectural plan but varied in terms of decoration, are among the earliest examples of colonial architecture. View pictures and read the history of these mission churches, or conventos, in New...

The Franciscan monastery of Huejotzingo is a landmark in the development of sixteenth-century art in central Mexico. View pictures of this mission and read details about the architectural elements in this essay.

When the Spanish Crown (the monarchy) learned of the promise of wealth offered by vast continents that had been previously unknown to Europeans, they sent forces to colonize the land, convert the indigenous populations, and extract...

Across Europe, many powerful individuals sought to acquire objects taken from the Americas, as a way to know the unknown, to exert some control over the colonial processes underway, and to possess exotic and rare things. The Medici...

The Atrial Cross at Acolman offers a fascinating look into the interactions between Spanish friars and Nahua converts in the years directly following the conquest of Mexico. View pictures and descriptions of the cross and the Augustinian...

The development in the 12th century of Mudejar art in Aragon resulted from the particular political, social and cultural conditions that prevailed in Spain after the Reconquista. This art, influenced by Islamic tradition, also reflects...

Acoma Pueblo is home to one of the best-preserved early mission churches in the United States - San Esteban del Rey. View pictures of this church and read about the history in this essay.

Long-distance trade played a major role in the cultural, religious, and artistic exchanges that took place between the major centers of civilization in Europe and Asia during antiquity. Some of these trade routes had been in use for...

Seventeen decorated caves of the Paleolithic age were inscribed as an extension to the Altamira Cave, inscribed in 1985. The property will now appear on the List as Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain. The...

The fortified town, first established in the 16th century to protect the Royal Route inland, reached its apogee in the 18th century when many of its outstanding religious and civic buildings were built in the style of the Mexican...