Acknowledgments
Many years ago, as an undergraduate pre-med Biology and History double major at Boston University, I became fascinated with anatomical drawings. Perhaps this interest related to my moonlighting as a painter in my spare time, but whatever the reason I found myself poring through art books focused on human anatomy. During my sophomore year, I opted to fulfill a General Education requirement with Art History 101 (“Caves to Cathedrals”). Imagine my surprise when, by the end of Art History 102, I was ready to terminate my nascent medical “career” and become an art historian. My interest in the body continued to grow, especially after my enrollment at UCLA, and especially in a seminar on the body for which I wrote a paper about the Sacred Heart’s relationship to Mesoamerican heart sacrifice, science, and Catholicism in New Spain. Unbeknownst to me, years later I would develop the ideas in this paper into a doctoral dissertation. Even though I chose to forgo the medical profession, it seems fitting that those early years should inform so many of my art-historical interests—past, present, and, no doubt, future.
There has been a great deal of help along the way towards completing the research and writing of this manuscript. It is always a pleasure to offer my gratitude to the many individuals and institutions who shaped this book, and without whom this book would not exist. I would first like to thank the many individuals whose scholarship has profoundly shaped my own intellectual development and the formation of this book in many ways. They include, but are certainly not limited to, Luisa Elena Alcalá, Alexander Gauvin Bailey, Clara Bargellini, Daniela Bleichmar, Marcus Burke, Caroline Walker Bynum, Jaime Cuadriello, Thomas Cummins, Carolyn Dean, Jeffrey Hamburger, Kelly Donahue-Wallace, Ilona Katzew, Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, Cecelia Klein, Asunción Lavrin, Dana Leibsohn, Walter Melion, David Morgan, Barbara Mundy, Jeanette Peterson, Donna Pierce, Michael Schreffler, Jon Seydl, Victor Stoichita, William Taylor, Charlene Villaseñor Black, and Joanna Woods-Marsden.
Several fellowships and grants provided support to complete this project. I was the fortunate recipient of a Jean Stone Summer Research Stipend in 2004 and a UCLA Graduate Division Summer Research Mentorship in 2005 that allowed me to complete preliminary research for the project when it was my dissertation. Between 2007–2009, two Edward A. Dickson Fellowships, a Jan and Frederick Mayer Scholarship, and a UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship supported my research and allowed me to make significant advancements on the project. After receiving my doctorate, a Leonard and Claire Tow Faculty Travel Fellowship in 2011 permitted me to travel back to Mexico and San Francisco to follow up on several loose ends, to attend the wonderful El Sagrado Corazón de Jesús exhibition at the Soumaya Museum, and to pursue new avenues of research. A Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation Fellowship for Excellence in Teaching allowed me the necessary time to make significant progress on the book manuscript, as did a PSC-CUNY grant. A Dean’s Research Grant from Pepperdine University also allowed me to revisit some important materials in the New York Public Library.
I am indebted to all those individuals who have helped me along the way in museum collections, archives, and libraries in Mexico, Spain, Italy, and the United States. The staff of Gallery Four of the Archivo General de la Nación in Mexico City deserves special mention for their assistance and generosity. In Puebla, I also owe a special thanks to the librarians and archivists of the Bibliotheca Franciscana in Cholula and the Archivo Notarial de Puebla. At the CSU-Sutro Library, Martha Whittaker worked endlessly to find me books and to offer her assistance. She not only allowed me to rummage through the Sutro’s collections, but she also shared with me information she had collected while completing her own dissertation. The librarians of the Bancroft Library and New York Public Library were always willing to help me locate materials, without which I would have missed some gems. I also wish to thank the individuals and institutions who helped me locate materials in collections or who granted permissions to use images. They include the Archivo General de la Nación in Mexico City, Daniel Leibsohn Collection (especially María Luisa Hidalgo), Denver Art Museum, Georgetown Library, Getty Research Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museo Nacional del Arte, Museo Nacional del Virreinato, Museo Soumaya, University of Glasgow Library, Steven Zucker, Tiffany Lynn Hunt, and JoAnna Walton Reyes.
While at UCLA, I had several mentors who skillfully guided me along the way, offering support when it was needed, but always challenging me to be a better scholar. My dissertation advisor and now friend and colleague, Charlene Villaseñor Black, has always been a warm, intelligent, and exemplary mentor. The road to completion would have been much rougher without her support, and I am forever indebted to her. She continues to be a stellar role model. Cecelia Klein was also generous with her time, and I must thank her for always sharing her field of expertise with me. I also would like to thank Sharon Gerstel, Joanna Woods-Marsden, and Teófilo Ruíz for their suggestions and encouragement. Without their help and guidance, this project would never have developed as swiftly and as soundly as it did.
I owe debts of gratitude to many friends, colleagues, and editors beyond those already mentioned. Thanks are due especially to Ananda Cohen Aponte, Derek Burdette, Kristen Loring Chiem, Emily Engel, Kate Epstein, Bryan Givens, Heather Graham, Amanda Herring, Elisa Mandell, Barbara Mundy, Kim Richter, Linda Rodriguez, Pilar Rau, Elena FitzPatrick Sifford, Jennifer Smith, Cristina Stanciou, Lisa Boutin Vitela, and peer reviewers for reading and commenting on chapters of this book. In particular, Kristen, Nandi, Bryan, and Heather deserve special praise for having read the manuscript in its entirety. Heartfelt thanks are due to Walter Melion for accepting the book in the series Brill’s Studies on Art, Art History, and Intellectual History and to my colleagues and editors at Brill, Ivo Romein, Arjan van Dijk, and Gera van Bedaf, all of whom have played a role in this book’s development. I thank them also for their commitment and excitement for this project. During my time at CUNY, colleagues at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center provided a supportive atmosphere while I was in the nascent stages of transforming portions of the dissertation into a book. Special thanks are due to Jennifer Ball, Mona Hadler, Rachel Kousser, Michael Mallory, and Malka Simon. They encouraged me to teach a variety of classes, during which I could test out some of my theories and ideas with students. Comments I received from colleagues at conferences, including those of the College Art Association, Renaissance Society of America, Sixteenth Century Studies, Texas Tech’s Death in Words and Images: The Case of the Early Modern Hispanic World, University of Houston’s Art of Death and Dying Symposium, UC-Riverside’s Objects of Devotion/Objetos de Devoción, among others, helped me to formulate new questions and to gauge what people found most interesting and insightful, as well as what did not work as well. Similarly, the audiences of lectures at Cornell University, Brooklyn College, Pepperdine University, the Archaeological Institute of Staten Island, and SUNY-Plattsburgh, challenged some of my preconceived notions about the Sacred Heart and what information I needed to explain in greater detail. I’m undoubtedly leaving out many individuals who influenced the path of this book, so I offer a warm thank you to all of you.
My students over the past decade have helped to shape this book in profound ways. To my students from the University of Oregon, Brooklyn College, the Graduate Center, and Pepperdine University, I am indebted to your hard work, inspiration, and insightful comments on various ideas contained in this book. I now know how challenging it is to teach what I know best. Many students offered useful critiques of this material or asked me questions that encouraged me to rethink how I understand or write about the Sacred Heart.
To all my friends and family who have offered their encouragement throughout this lengthy process, I owe you a debt of gratitude. Among them, Vanessa Elena Cuellár, Verónica Gutiérrez, and Dana Polanichka always found ways to direct me toward the correct path, whether they knew it or not, and for that I am forever grateful. Carlos Luna, who passed when he was much too young, gave me a necklace with El Sagrado Corazón on it when I myself was too young to know my path; it has been among my most treasured possessions, accompanying me on many research trips to complete this book. To my siblings, Caitlin, Conor, Chloë, Liam, and Sadhbh for always finding some way to remind your oldest sister that there is more to life than academia. To all my parents, I thank them for their general patience, humor, support, and guidance. I’m not sure they will ever read this book, but they have affected its development in many ways. I also want to thank my parents-in-law for often caring for my daughters as this book was in its final stretch. To my daughters, Eleana and Anaïs, both born during the writing of this book, for reminding me of what is most important in life: love, laughter, and apparently sleeplessness. And last, but certainly not least, to my husband Shawn for his love, patience, and kindness. In the darkest moments he was able to help me see the light and stay the course. This book would not exist without him, and I dedicate it to him.