The Art That Made Mexico: Paradise, Power and Prayers

Prayers

In this final episode, Alinka explores how faith has always driven life in Mexico. She reveals how artists were kept close to the elites in Mexico's ancient civilisations, depicting the deities that were the foundations of the society's structures and beliefs. Gods and goddesses were created in the mind's eye of millions, who in turn worshipped the imagery that the artists provided. Alinka explains how, when the Spanish imposed Catholicism after the Spanish Conquest, the notion of venerating the divine using iconography already existed in Mexico and explores some of Mexico's most spectacular art, which blends Mesoamerican and Catholic iconography. Finally, she discovers how today, one artist is pushing the boundaries of belief, incorporating symbols of secular culture and consumerism with religious imagery.