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Decadent Wealth, Degenerate Morality, Dominance, And Devotion: The Discordant Iconicity Of The Rich Mountain Of Potosí, Claudia A. Cornejo Happel

Publications

The rich mountain of Potosí, with its famed silver mines, has commanded the attention of Europeans, creoles (Americans of Spanish descent), and indigenous Andeans since the Spanish colonizers of Peru were made aware of its existence in 1545. Soon after its discovery, the rich mountain was represented in a variety of written and visual texts created by writers and artists from the Andes, Spain, and other parts of Europe. Independent of its physical form, in these representations the rich mountain assumed a discursive meaning, functioning as an icon that, depending on the context, represented abstract ideas of wealth, immorality, dominance, …