Transforming Images

"Style" has been one of the cornerstones not only of the modern discipline of art history but also of social and cultural history. In this volume, the writers consider the inadequacy of the concept of style as essential to a person, people, place, or period. While the subject matter of this book is specific to religious practices and artifacts from New Mexico between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, the implications of these investigations are far reaching historically, methodologically, and theoretically. The essays collected here explore the Catholic instruments of religious devotion produced in New Mexico from around 1760 until the radical transformation of the tradition in the twentieth century. The writers in this volume make three key arguments. First, they make a case for bringing new theoretical perspectives and research strategies to bear on the New Mexican materials and other colonial contexts. Second, they demonstrate that the New Mexican materials provide an excellent case study for rethinking many of the most fundamental questions in art-historical and anthropological study. Third, the authors collectively argue that the New Mexican images had, and still have, importance to diverse audiences and makers. The distinctiveness of New Mexican

Claire Farago is Professor in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is the author ofLeonardo Da Vinci' ?"Paragone": A Critical Interpretation with a New Edition of the Text in the Codex Urbinas(1992).

Donna Pierce is Curator of Spanish Colonial Art at the Denver Art Museum and the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art in Santa Fe. She is co-author ofCambrios: The Spirit of Transformation in Spanish Colonial Art (1992) andSpanish New Mexico: The Spanish Colonial Arts Society Collection (1996).