Brought to Spain in the thirteenth century by Islamic artisans, the enamelled earthenware known as mayolica is decorated with a lead glaze to which tin oxide is added to create an opaque white surface. By the fifteenth century, several areas in Spain were well known throughout Europe for the quality of these ceramics, and with Spain's expansion into the New World the mayolica tradition came into Mexico. There it underwent further changes, notably the use of indigenous design motifs and patterns inspired by Chinese porcelain. Over the next three centuries, the potters of New Spain produced...

The Mayer Center for Pre-Columbian and Spanish Colonial Art at the Denver Art Museum held a symposium in 2008 to examine the arts of South America during the culturally complex period of Spanish and Portuguese colonialism in the early modern era. Specialists in the arts and history of Latin America traveled from Venezuela, Spain, Portugal, and the United States to present recent research. The topics ranged from architecture, painting, and sculpture to furniture and the decorative arts. Edited by Denver Art Museum curator Donna Pierce, this volume presents revised and expanded versions of the...

The Denver Art Museum counts among its greatest resources a world-renowned Spanish Colonial collection rich in art from all over Latin America. Initiated in 1936, the Spanish Colonial collection has grown dramatically over the years to include more than 3,000 objects. It is the best collection of its type in the United States, and in many areas, it is the most comprehensive collection outside the country of origin. The museum s Spanish Colonial galleries include significant paintings, sculpture, furniture, silver, and decorative arts from the period.
This lavishly illustrated volume the...

The Denver Art Museum held a symposium in 2012 hosted by the Frederick and Jan Mayer Center for Pre-Columbian and Spanish Colonial Art. The museum assembled an international group of scholars specializing in the arts and history of colonial Latin America to present recent research with topics ranging from ephemeral architecture, painting, and sculpture to engravings, decorative arts, costumes and clothing of the period. This volume presents revised and expanded versions of papers presented at the symposium.
Barbara Mundy (Fordham University) opens this volume with a thought-provoking...

In 2014 the Denver Art Museum held a symposium hosted by the Frederick and Jan Mayer Center for Pre-Columbian and Spanish Colonial Art and co-organized by Donna Pierce and Emily Ballew Neff, Director of the Brooks Museum, Memphis. They assembled an international group of scholars to present recent research on portraiture in the Spanish colony of New Spain (Mexico) and the British colonies of North America. This volume presents revised and expanded versions of papers presented at the symposium.
Michael Schreffler (University of Notre Dame) opens the volume with a discussion of portraits...