Reframing the Renaissance: Visual Culture in Europe and Latin America, 1450-1650

How did the extensive cultural exchange between the Old and New Worlds that took place during the sixteenth century affect artistic practice and discussions of art at that time? In this book distinguished Renaissance art historians reevaluate the Eurocentrism of Italian Renaissance art history by envisioning how the history of Renaissance art would look if cultural interaction and the conditions of reception became the primary focus. Scholars such as Anthony Cutler, Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, Martin Kemp, Cecelia Klein, and Claudia Lazzaro examine the function, reception, and influence of specific kinds of images and other manufactured objects as they were disseminated around the globe, particularly between Renaissance Italy and Latin America.

The first section, on historiography, identifies significant problems in past conceptualizations of Renaissance art. The next essays examine the conceptual frameworks in which visual representation functioned in Europe and Latin America. The third section discusses early collecting practices and cultural exchange in Europe. Three essays then present case studies of culturally hybrid images―of unruly women, colonial maps, and ethnic stereotypes―in intercultural perspective. In the epilogue, W.J.T. Mitchell examines contemporary views of how we construct the human subject.

Bringing together the familiar and the unfamiliar in a highly thought-provoking way, the book is an important contribution to many fields of study, including historiography, Latin American art, and Renaissance studies.

Claire Farago is associate professor of art history at the University of Colorado at Boulder.