NEW- The Arts of the Aztec Empire
Online
Evening Study Online
Dr Sanja Savkic Sebek
5 pre-recorded lectures with 5 live Zoom seminars at 18:30 [London time], over 5 weeks from Thursday 23 April to Thursday 21 May 2026
£245
Course Description
The arts of the Aztec Empire reveal a world of extraordinary refinement, scale, and creative power. This course traces the visual and material foundations of this artistic tradition from the fourteenth to the early sixteenth century, examining how forms of making were embedded in every aspect of social, political, and ritual life—from performance and imperial expansion to the creation of sacred images and precious objects.
The course follows the rise of Mexico-Tenochtitlan as the imperial centre, the construction of temples and monuments, and the fashioning of intricate works in gold, turquoise, obsidian, feathers, shell, and other materials. These creations are considered within the wider ritual and material contexts in which they were made, exchanged, and experienced, revealing how artistic processes articulated relations between matter, life, and the cosmos, and how they sustained the cohesion and vitality of empire.
The concluding part turns to the transformations of Aztec art after the Spanish conquest, tracing the displacement, reuse, and reinterpretation of objects in colonial and European settings. By bringing together the study of image, material, and ritual, the course offers a close view of how the arts of the Aztec Empire gave visible form to ideas of making, animation, and sacred power—continuing to shape how the arts of ancient Mexico are seen and understood today.
How to Book
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Lecturer's Biography
Dr Sanja Savkic Sebek is an art historian specialising in the visual and material cultures of ancient and early colonial Latin America, with particular emphasis on Mesoamerica. She holds a PhD in art history from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and has held research positions at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence – Max-Planck-Institut and the Sainsbury Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. Her publications and (co)edited volumes examine artistic practices, material transformations, and Indigenous epistemologies across the Americas, with a focus on the relationships between image, material, and ritual.