International Congress of Americanists,
Centro Històrico, Mexico City
July 19-24, 2009

Call for papers:
The Indigenous Eye and Other Senses:
Creating Convento Art in 16th-Century Mexico

Organizers
Dr. Eloise Quiñones Keber, City University of New York, The Graduate Center
Dr. Penny Morrill, Independent Scholar

Europe's unexpected 'discovery' of the Americas beginning in the late 15th
inaugurated a period of intellectual, political, social and artistic
upheaval that was felt throughout space and time. In a newly globalized
world, peoples and regimes formerly unaware of one another not only came
into bewildering and often dramatic confrontation but increasingly became
culturally, economically, and even genetically intertwined. Certainly,
neither emerged from this encounter unchanged. This is true as well of
European Christianity, which faced daunting challenges in evangelizing the
millions of linguistically and ethnically diverse populations of the
Americas. Recognizing their stupendous task in converting the adherents of
vibrant beliefs, practices, rituals, pantheons, and cosmological constructs
that defined their individual and cultural identities, the Christian
missionaries set about to achieve their evangelical task with both passion
and practicality. As religions worldwide had always done, the proselytizers
utilized a spectrum of visible, aural, and other tangible means to impart
intangible values and induce transformed earthly behaviors. The myriad ways
in which the friars attempted to displace ancient traditions by foreign
Christian concepts and activities, and the results of these efforts,
represent the theme of this symposium.

An insight into the way the first friars strategized their campaign of
conversion can be gleaned from the multi-pronged educational program of the
astonishingly productive Flemish friar Pedro de Gante at the school of San
Jose de los Naturales, which adjoined the first Franciscan convento of San
Francisco in Mexico City. Young (and perhaps not so young) Nahuas were not
only catechized, they were bombarded by a concentrated course in European
culture that encompassed not only religious training but an array visual,
theatrical, musical, and practical skills as well. As these abilities had
been amply encouraged in their own pre-conquest culture, the process was
often less that of exposure than to new applications of already well-honed
talents, though older (Medieval) and newer (Renaissance) types of knowledge
and technologies were also transferred.

The fruits of this type of intensive and expansive education can be found in
the art works that remain in the convento complexes built throughout Mexico
in the 16th century. Filled with monumental architecture, painted walls,
sculpture, altarpieces, vestments, and choir books still visible today, we
must add to this vast visual repertoire now-vanished music, song,
processions, and performances that were also intended to bridge the distance
between home-grown and imported ideas. Such well known works as open
chapels that replicated the open spaces of Prehispanic ritual and atrial
crosses that employed glyph-like forms to portray key objects and events in
the Passion of Jesus are examples of such innovations.. The papers of this
symposium will explore how the inventive artists and art works of various
16th-century conventos allied indigenous and European concepts to create the
unique world of Mexican Christianity and art.

The deadline for submitting abstracts is December, 15th 2008

Please send them to:
equinonesmindspring.com