Beyond Biography: Artistic Practice and Personhood in Colonial Latin America

October 10, 2019 / 6:00 pm / University of Florida, Smathers 100, Keynote Lecture by Dr. Susan V. Webster

October 11, 2019 / 9:30 am – 5:00 pm / University of Florida, Harn Museum of Art, Additional Speakers  

What was the nature of artistic work in colonial Latin America? This symposium gathers leading scholars to think about artistic subjectivity without focusing on names or “life’s work.” We will consider artistic personhood and practice within social structures, in relation to medium, and as determined by gender, age, and race. We strive for a greater understanding of colonial Latin American art itself, as well as of the human agency that brought it into being.

A Claim for Craft in the Development of Artists’ Rights

Maya Stanfield-Mazzi, Associate Professor of Art History, University of Florida


The Artist-Cartographers of the Uppsala Map of Mexico-Tenochtitlan (c. 1540)

Jennifer Saracino, Assistant Professor of Art History, Flagler College


Angelina Martina: A Tlatelolca Merchant or a Feather Artisan?

Margarita Vargas-Betancourt, Latin American and Caribbean Special Collections Librarian, University of Florida


The Power of Expertise: Artists as Arbiters of the Miraculous in Colonial Latin America

Derek Burdette, Assistant Professor of Art History, University of Florida


Academic Ambitions in New Spain

Aaron M. Hyman, Assistant Professor of Art History, Johns Hopkins University


The Face of the Virgin and the Hand of the Artist: Thinking about Anonymity in Colonial South America

Emily Floyd, Lecturer in History of Art, University College London


Art-Making and Art-Breaking in the Era of Tupac Amaru

Ananda Cohen-Aponte, Associate Professor of Art History, Cornell University