Images Take Flight. Feather Art in Mexico and Europe (1400-1700)

This widely anticipated book offers the first systematic study of feather mosaics created in New Spain in the context of a broader creative exchange between Mesoamerican and European aesthetics and materials.

Thirty-three scholars look at these unprecedented feather artworks that circulated all around the world in the 16th and 17th centuries from a range of vantage points including art history, anthropology, collecting and global history, natural history, archeology and conservation. Planned to complement a major international exhibition held at the National Museum of Art (MUNAL) in Mexico City in 2011, the book is organized thematically and includes ca. 300 color plates illustrating feather mosaics with their astonishing details, as well as relevant paintings, sculptures, drawings, engravings, books, European illuminated manuscripts, Mesoamerican codices, and studies of natural history.