Mexican-American Art
You are to respond to the prompt found below in a four-page paper. Please read through all of the instructions that follow before beginning the assignment. Prompt: Following the conquest of Mesoamerica, European (and Asian) artistic materials, forms, and subjects were introduced to the region. What resulted was the merging of cultural practices, referred to as cultural hybridity (mestizaje or tequitqui). Cultural hybridity presents itself in the art of viceregal New Spain both visibly and invisibly. Select four artworks studied thus far to describe and analyze taking into account the issue of cultural hybridity, as it pertains to the artworks media (the materials they are made from), formal properties, subject matter, and/or creators. Questions to consider in the discussion of each artwork: How is cultural hybridity visible and/or invisible in the artworks media, forms, and/or subject matter? Who produced the artwork? Is knowledge of the artist and/or their background relevant to understanding the work? Why? Artwork selection: Choose the artworks thoughtfully. The four artworks must be selected from the assigned readings and they cannot be the same artworks already discussed in the weekly assignments. The artworks should be exemplary of a range of media (different materials), and they should be dated to different decades/centuries within the colonial period (1521-1821). Properly identify each artwork discussed (include the artist, if known, title, and date). You must address the artworks media, formal properties, and subject matter, as well as what is known about the context (time/place) in which they were produced. THE FOUR ART WORKS: 1. “Burning the clothes and books and costumes of the priest” from Diego Munoz 2. “Map of Cholula”, c.1581 from Unidentified artist 3. “The Lamentation” c.1556 from Unidentified artist at the monastery of San Andres. 4. “Saint Bernardino and Indian Patrons”c.1605 Unidentified artist in Church of San Bernardino de Siena , Xochimilco, Mexico City References: Your paper must be phrased in your own words and it should expand upon information found in the assigned readings and course assignments (successful papers will not include content copied and pasted from course assignments, but instead consist of new text generated for this assignment). You may conduct additional research, but only reference the following credible sources: books, scholarly articles, museum websites, and Khan Academy. If you quote from or closely paraphrase your sources, please keep it to a minimum, and include proper citations in MLA or The Chicago Manual of Style format. Attach a bibliography to the end of your paper. Formatting Guidelines: Your paper must be at least four full pages of text (and no more than five full pages of text) and contain an introduction with a strong thesis statement, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. It is to be typed in Times New Roman 12-point font and double-spaced, with one-inch margins. Proofread your work for typos and grammatical errors. You do not need to upload reproductions of the artworks. Please follow the instructions carefully as failure to do so will negatively affect your grade on the assignment. Plagiarized assignments will not receive credit.
