Codex Mendoza and the Material Agency of Indigenous Artists in Early Colonial New Spain

The paper, part of a dialogue on materiality in New Spain art, comments the results obtained from chemical analyses performed on the colonial Mexican manuscript known as Codex Mendoza in order to rflect on indigenous artists' material choices during the early colonial period in New Spain. Such choices, far form being the result of a passive reception of European-induced technological changes, reveal a great deal of material agency by the indigenous artists themselves, acting according to the changing modes of manuscipts' production and performance.