There is a certain formulaic quality to many English-language reviews of books and exhibitions dedicated to Mexican viceregal art history. The review begins with a lamentation over the undervalued and under-studied status of the field despite its beauty, historical worth, and current relevance, followed by a defense of the stalwart few scholars and institutions that have carried its mantle, which leads into a celebration of the latest valiant contribution. We follow this formula because, despite more than a century of publications and exhibitions, Mexican viceregal art history remains—outside Mexico—a marginalized area, a field needing to be “rescued,” as a recent headline about a lecture at the Museo del Prado declared. The reasons behind this are myriad and complex, related to politics, even within Mexico itself; collecting practices and patterns; institutional Eurocentrism; and simple access, as reproductions of the works and the documents needed to study them remain even today challenging...

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