Virtual Event: Silver’s Myths of Spanish America

The Blanton’s collection of art of the Spanish Americas includes several exquisite silver pieces. In an exploration of their significance, scholars Kris Lane and Andrés de Leo will discuss the silver mines in Potosi (present-day Bolivia) and how they fueled and transformed the European economy from the 16th through 19th centuries. Join us to learn about everyday life and work in that era’s richest and highest-elevation boomtown, and how to appreciate this silverware beyond its simple stylistic features.

About our Speakers

Kris Lane holds the France V. Scholes Chair in Colonial Latin American History at Tulane University in New Orleans. He is author of Potosí: The Silver City that Changed the World (2019), Colour of Paradise: The Emerald in the Age of Gunpowder Empires (2010), and Quito 1599: City & Colony in Transition (2002).

Andrés de Leo is researcher at Centro de Investigación y Conservación del Patrimonio de la Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología del Perú. He holds a MArch from the Universidad Autónoma de Oaxaca, and a PhD from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. He co-curated the exhibition Plus Ultra, platería religiosa de la Nueva España, opened to the public from October 2020 until February 2021 at Casa de México en España (Madrid).

Feature Image Caption: Plaque from an altar frontal. Perú, first half of the 18th century. Blanton Museum of Art. Photography courtesy of the Philadelphia Art Museum.