How does art and architecture in colonial Spanish America actually get made? How is it financed? How are artists and architects—in choice of subject matter, and style—given parameters by the contracts they enter into? By the materials they have at hand? How are the professional makers of visual culture trained? And who are their patrons? This unit addresses the economic and cultural underpinnings of visual culture through the study of its production.

Architectural Drawing, 1685. Diego de la Sierra. Archivo General de Indias, Seville