Military Ethos and Visual Culture in Post-Conquest Mexico

Mónica Domínguez Torres is an Associate Professor in the Department of Art History at the University of Delaware, USA.

• Contents: Introduction; Grasping the military ethos of 16th-century Mexico; In the sign of the Cross: the making of new Christian knights; Blazons of Anáhuac and the language of allegiance; The spectacle of war: ancient insignia for the colonial present; Epilogue; Bibliography; Index.

Awarded a Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant from the College Art Association, 2011 ’Carefully researched and theoretically sophisticated, this study examines the emergency of new military imagery in the context of competing military ideologies - Spanish and Pre-Columbian - in colonial New Spain. From the creation of new heraldic devices with indigenous elements, to the colonial transformation of European heraldry, ruler portraits in Mexican codices, and military imagery in monastic complexes, as well as the martial symbolism of atrial crosses, Domínguez's important study documents the fashioning and refashioning of images associated with two different military cultures in an era of conquest.’ Charlene Villaseñor Black, UCLA, USA '... this book is well researched, well written, and a welcome contribution. It will surely provoke further discussions about indigenous cultural transitions under Spanish colonialism.' Renaissance Quarterly 'This is a very detailed and carefully researched book, as shown by the very extensive bibliography that concludes it. It paints a fascinating picture of apparently incompatible cultures merging together through a shared system of beliefs in a warrior code. In the process the author also provides much enlightenment on the nature of the martial ethos that existing in each society prior to their joining.' Arquebusier