Under European Eyes: Conquistadors and Arts of the New World February 24, 2007

A dazzling array of objects from Penn Museum's rich American collections represents the native Mexican, Central and South American art traditions that flourished and influenced European values and sensibilities in the years after European contact and conquest. Included are gold necklaces, earrings, breastplates, a gold and emerald jaguar pendant from Panama, a sculpture of an Aztec deity from Mexico, a quipu--an Andean record-keeping device of complex knotted strings, and brightly colored featherwork from Peru. This selection of more than 40 spectacular artifacts is designed to reveal how Europeans perceived the arts of their newly conquered subjects. Texts and illustrations from works of the period convey how Spaniards acquired, interpreted and valued indigenous works of art.