This course examines early modern conceptions of gender, sexuality, and the body through the lens of visual and material culture ranging from late medieval France and Renaissance Italy to colonial New Spain. Particular attention will be paid to interrogating, challenging, and nuancing conceptual binaries such as masculinity/femininity, heterosexuality/homosexuality, celibacy/marriage, and humanity/ divinity from a historical perspective, as well as to investigating origins of modern racism, sexism, and ableism in the West. We will examine a variety of objects including portraits, prints, illuminated manuscripts, and items for domestic use, as well as excerpts from texts that complicate gender paradigms, such as the writings of Christine de Pizan and mystical accounts of the maternal traits of Jesus.