Early Modern Artistic Globalization from Colonial Mexico

In the early modern period the circulation of objects between Europe, Asia, and the Americas led to the expansion of artistic horizons in all three continents and the appearance of new art objects. Asian porcelain, lacquer, and folding screens became globally desired luxury goods between the 16th and the 18th centuries. Both Europe and the Spanish Americas were crucial markets for Asian objects, but New Spain, or colonial Mexico, ¹ played a leading role in the first stages of artistic globalization. Although this is well described in Spanish and Latin American scholarship of the last 20 years, ² outside of the Spanish-speaking world, little is known about the particularly close relationship that existed between Japan and colonial Mexico in the 16th and 17th centuries.