Faculty and Staff

Biography

La Dra. Ilenia Colón Mendoza recibió su bachillerato en Historia del Arte y Arqueología de la Universidad de Evansville en Indiana y su maestría y doctorado son de la Universidad de Pennsylvania State. La Dra. Colón Mendoza enfoca sus estudios en el arte Español del siglo 17. Además de la artes visuales del Barroco, estudia el arte Caribeño, de Latino America y el arte y arquitectura Romana. Si usted tiene preguntas sobre la Escuela de Artes Visuales y de Diseño de la Universidad de Florida Central puede comunicarse conmigo por correo electrónico. 

Dr. Ilenia Colón Mendoza received a B.A. with a double major in Art History and Archaeology from the University of Evansville in Indiana and her M.A. and Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Colón Mendoza's major area of research is seventeenth-century Spanish art. In addition to the visual arts of the Baroque, she is also proficient in Caribbean and Latin American art, and the art and architecture of Ancient Rome. 

Her book entitled The Cristos yacentes of Gregorio Fernandez: Polychrome Sculptures of the Supine Christ in Seventeenth-Century Spain (Ashgate/Routledge, May 2015) examines the significance of the Cristo yacente sculptural type within the context of the theatrical elaborations of the Catholic Holy Week in Baroque Spain. The issues of pageantry, theater, and the connection between the creation of these images and the literature of the period are her focus. Her second book co-edited with Dr. Margaret Zaho is entitled Spanish Royal Patronage 1412-1804: Portraits as Propaganda (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, January 2018) studies such portraits in the context of their commission, production, and display. Dr. Colón Mendoza's current book project, under contract with Routledge, explores the issue of colored (polychrome) sculpture and its place in the art historical canon. 

Before she joined the faculty at the University of Central Florida she taught at the University of Puerto Rico (Carolina), and as assistant professor at the Herron School of Art, Indiana University-Purdue University, and at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. Her research has been supported by the New Frontiers in the Arts & Humanities Exploration Traveling Fellowship Grant (Indiana University in Bloomington), the Program of Cultural Cooperation between Spain’s Ministry of Culture and United States Universities, and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. She was awarded a Fullbright-Hayes for Argentina. 

She teaches Introduction to Art History II, Visual Arts Administration, Women in Art, Mesoamerican Art, Latin American Art, Baroque Art, and Theory and Criticism. She is affiliate faculty in Graduate Studies, Latin American Studies, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, and Women's and Gender Studies. Dr. Colón has lectured at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Museo Nacional de Escultura in Valladolid, Spain, and the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rome while also serving as consultant to curatorial projects on polychrome sculpture at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the National Gallery in London. She organizes the Annual SVAD Art History Symposium which she inaugurated and serves as faculty advisor for the Art History Club. Additionally she is the founding mentor for the Iota chapter of the Kappa Pi International Art Society at UCF. 

Education

• Ph.D. in Art History from Pennsylvania State University

Research Interests

• Sacred Art and Liturgical Practices
• Polychrome and Hyperreal Sculpture
• Caribbean and Latin American Peasant Images
• Feminist and Latinx Art
• Curation, Virtual exhibitions, and Visual Arts Administration

Recent Research Activities

2024 Peer-reviewed Scholarly Book, co-editor and author of introduction and 1 chapter (7000 words) with Lisandra Estévez, Polychrome Art in the Early Modern World: 1200-1800, Visual Culture in Early Modernity with series editor Isabella Vitti. England: Routledge. Author of peer-reviewed essay “Pacheco’s Arte de la Pintura: the parangón and techniques of painting polychrome sculpture in 17th century Spain.”

2022 Peer-reviewed chapter in scholarly book, “The Broken Body as Devotional Mediator in Seventeenth Century Spain,” in Routledge Companion to Art and Disability, edited by Keri Watson and Timothy Hiles. England: Routledge.

2021 (By invitation) Review of Manuel Arias Martínez, Hijo del Laocoonte: Alonso Berruguete y la antigüedad pagana, Madrid: Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, Subdirección General de Documentación y Publicaciones, 2017. 260 pp. Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies. Taylor and Francis Group, England.

2020 (By invitation) Peer-reviewed online journal, “Polychrome Sculpture in Early Modern Spain,” Oxford Bibliographies in Art History, edited by Thomas DaCosta Kauffman (Princeton University). New York: Oxford University Press.

2018 Peer-reviewed Essay in Scholarly Book, “Hispanic/LatinX Art in the U.S.: Past and Present,” in Hispanic/Latino Media in the U.S. edited by Katie Coronado and Erica Kight, Routledge, of Taylor & Francis Group, England.    

2018 Peer-reviewed Scholarly Book, co-editor with Margaret Ann Zaho,“Spanish Royal Patronage 1412-1804: Portraits as Propaganda,”Cambridge Scholars Publishing, United Kingdom.

https://www.cambridgescholars.com/spanish-royal-patronage-1412-1804

2016 Peer-reviewed Journal Publication to Hispanic Research Journal, Volume 17, Issue 5, “The Jíbaro Masquerade: Luis Paret y Alcázar’s Self-Portrait of 1776.” 

2015 Peer-reviewed book "The Cristos yacentes of Gregorio Fernandez: Polychrome Sculptures of the Supine Christ in Seventeenth-Century Spain." Ashgate/Routledge.

https://www.routledge.com/The-Cristos-yacentes-of-Gregorio-Fernandez-Polychrome-Sculptures-of-the/Me...

2014 Peer-reviewed Journal Publication SECAC Review: “Crystallizing the Cristo yacente Images: Mystical Thought and Seventeenth Century Spanish Devotional Sculpture.”

2013 Peer-reviewed Essay in Conference Journal, 2nd International Meeting of Museums and Collections of Sculpture, Copy and Invention: Models, Replicas, Series and Quotes in European Sculpture, Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid: “The Essence of the Original: Imitations of Gregorio Fernández’s Cristo yacente.”           

2013 Exhibition Catalogue, “Caribbean Expressions: Art, Life, and Culture,” September 5 -September 27th, UCF Art Gallery, University of Central Florida, Orlando FL.

2004 Peer-reviewed Journal Publication, Athanor Vol XXI: “Ramón Frade’s El Pan Nuestro: The Jíbaro as a Visual Construction of Puerto Rican National Identity.”

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Selected Publications

Books

• Edited with Lisandra Estévez, Polychrome Art in the Early Modern World: 1200-1800, Visual Culture in Early Modernity with series editor Isabella Vitti. London, England: Routledge, 2024.
• Edited with Margaret Ann Zaho, Spanish Royal Patronage 1412-1804: Portraits as Propaganda. New Castle, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018.
• Ilenia Colon Mendoza, The Cristos yacentes of Gregorio Fernandez: Polychrome Sculptures of the Supine Christ in Seventeenth-Century Spain. London, England: Routledge, 2015.

Articles/Essays

• Ilenia Colon Mendoza, "The Jíbaro Masquerade: Luis Paret y Alcázar’s Self-Portrait of 1776." Hispanic Research Journal. Volume 17, issue 5 (2016): 455-467.

Awards

2024    College of Arts and Humanities Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award

2024    Custard Institute Publication Subvention Grant for Polychromy in the Early Modern World: 1200-  1800, Custard Institute for Spanish Art and Culture, Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX. 

2023    Distinguished Alumni Award in Art History, College of Arts and Architecture, The Pennsylvania    State University.

2021    Teaching Incentive Program

2020    Fulbright Hays Program, with Dr. MC Santana and Dr. Maria Redmon 

2020    Scroll & Quill Society, Faculty Excellence

2020    Research Incentive Award, College of Arts and Humanities

2019    Quality Enhancement Program

2019    Pompeii: The Immortal City Partnership Grant, Orlando Science Center, Orlando, FL

2019    UCF Diversity Activity Grant, Office of Diversity and Inclusion

2018   Oculus Go Virtual Experiences for Art and Art History Courses, Technology Fee Grant 

2018    Faculty Diversity and Inclusion Impact Award, Office of Diversity and Inclusion

2018    The Association of American Colleges and Universities Endeavor Foundation Grant 

2018    College of Arts and Humanities Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award

2017    Writing Across the Curriculum Fellow

2016    Nominated for El Josco Award in Education

2016    Leadership Empowerment Program

2015    Teaching Incentive Program Award

2015    Center for Success of Women Faculty Fellow

2015    Provost Academic Leadership Academy (formerly: Leadership Development Program)

2014    31 Wonderful Women Who Have Been Instrumental in Shaping UCF’s Past, Present and Future

2013    College of Arts and Humanities Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award

2013    Sony Teaching Award, School of Visual Arts and Design

2012    Honors Congress Faculty Excellence Award

2011    OUR Student Research Grant

2011    Burnett College Student-Mentor Academic Research Team (SMART) Grant

2010    In-House Research Grant, College of Arts and Humanities

Routledge book nominated for: 16th Century Society and Conference Roland Bainton Prize, Southeastern College Art Conference Book Award, Best First Book Award: Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies, and the Eleanor Tufts Book Award.

Activities

2023 Spanish Golden Age Symposium, November 24-26, University College, Cork, Ireland (International Conference in area of study), “Calderón, the Paragone, and his Theatrical use of Sculpture.”

2023 College of Arts and Architecture Alumni Award Talk, October 5, The Pennsylvania State University, “Current Research on Spanish Polychromy and Future Projects.”

2023 Renaissance Society of America, March 9-11, San Juan, Puerto Rico (International Conference in area of study), “Imperfect Bodies and Perfect Souls in Counter-Reformation Spain,” in Disability and Otherness in Early Modern Art Panel.

2023 Renaissance Society of America, March 9-11, San Juan, Puerto Rico (International Conference in area of study), “The Materiality and Multisensory Nature of the Cristo yacente” in the Experiencing the Sculpted Body Panel.

2023 Activation-Staging Strategies of Mobile Artworks in the Early Modern Hispanic World, Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rome, February 16–17 (International Conference in area of specialty), “The Santo Entierro Procession: The Activation of the Cristo Yacente During Holy Week.”

2023 (By invitation) Ponce Museum of Art Lecture Series, Ponce, Puerto Rico, January 13 in conjuction with the exhibition La Edad de Oro del Arte Español (National Conference), “El Arte de Pintar Pintura Policromada en la España del Siglo 17.”

2022 (By invitation), Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL, December 4 in conjunction with the exhibition From the Andes to the West Indies: Spanish Colonial Paintings from the Thoma Foundation (Local Conference), “Reframing the Art of the Americas: Marian Images and José Campeche as Case Studies.”

2022 69th annual meeting of the Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies (SECOLAS), March 9-12 in Charlotte, North Carolina (Regional Conference) Art, Race, and Intersectionality in Early Modern Latin America and the Caribbean (1500-1800) Panel I and II, commentator and presenter, “Puerto Rican National Identity in the Work of José Campeche.”

2022 New College Conference of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, March 3-5, Sarasota, Florida (International Conference in area of study) Sculptural Agency in Italy and Spain panel: “The Art of Painting Polychrome Sculpture in Seventeenth Century Spain.”

2021 78th Annual Southeastern Renaissance Conference (SRC), October 15-16, at Duke University, Durham, NC (Regional Conference with Journal Publication): “Alonso Berruguete’s Workshop and the Place of Polychrome Sculpture in the Hierarchy of Arts in Spain.”

2021 (By invitation) International Conference on El color de la escultura: pintores y policromías en el mundo hispánico (1600-1770)/The Color of Sculpture: Painters and Polychromy in the Hispanic World (1600-1770), September 23-24, at the University of Seville, Spain (International Conference): “Francisco Pacheco, el parangón y el estatus de la escultura policromada en el siglo XVII.”  

2021 Sixteenth International Conference on The Arts in Society, June 16-18, at The University of Western Australia, School of Design, Perth (International Conference): “The Broken Body: A Study in Golden Age Spain.”

2020 Fifteenth International Conference on The Arts in Society, June 24-26, at National University of Ireland, Galway (International Conference): “Polychrome Sculpture as Canon: Pacheco and his Flesh Painting Techniques and the Parangón in Seventeenth Century Spain.”

2019 (By invitation) “Berruguete’s Legacy: The Place of Polychrome Sculpture in the Hierarchy of Arts in Spain.” International study day and conference organized by the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art for Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of Renaissance Spain on view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from October 13, 2019–February 17, 2020. 

2019 Ninth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society, April 25-26, University of Granada, Spain (International Conference): “Anatomy, Flesh, and Resurrection: Sculptures of the Supine Dead Christ in Counter-Reformation Spain.”

2018 Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas’ XLII International Colloquium on Art History, October 1-4, Mexico, (International Conference), Migraciones y exilios: “Exile and Influence, from Spain to Puerto Rico: Luis Paret y Alcázar and José Campeche.”

2018 Renaissance Society of America, March 22-24, 2018, New Orleans (International Conference),  chaired session I and organized session II with Kelly Helmstutler Di Dio: "Sculpture in Iberia and Beyond I and II." 

2018 New College Conference of Medieval and Renaissance Studies to be held March 8-10, 2018 Sarasota, Florida (International Conference), chaired by Ilenia Colón Mendoza and Lisandra Estevez: "Polychromy in the Early Modern World: 1200-1700." 

Accepted  HASTAC 2017: The Possible Worlds of Digital Humanities, November 2-4, 2017, University of Central Florida (National Conference): “Virtual Exhibitions.”

Accepted  SACRIMA on The Normativity of Sacred Images in Early Modern Europe, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich on 2-3 November 2017 (International Conference): “Hyperreality as Visual Norm: The Conceptualization of the Sacred Image of the Cristo yacente in Early Modern Spain.” 

2017 Sunshine State Teaching and Learning Conference, Feb. 15-17, St. Petersburg, Florida (Regional Conference), Theme for 2017 Teaching in the 21st Century: “Diversity and Motivation: The Visual Arts Administration Course.”

2016 A Festschrift Symposium in Honor of Prof. Brian Curran, The Pennsylvania State University. "Pacheco's Art of Paintings: The Materials and Techniques of Spanish 17th Century Polychrome Sculpture."

2015 104th Annual CAA conference, Washington, D.C. (National Conference in Field) Panel Chair for ASHAHS session: “Polychrome Sculpture in Iberia and the Americas, 1200-1800.”

2014 The Sixteenth Century Society and Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana October (National Conference in Field) Panel Chair: “Sculpture and Sculptors in Spain, 1450-1660 II,” Commentator for Panel I with Dr. Helmstutler Di Dio and presented “The Art of Painting Polychrome Sculpture in Seventeenth Century Spain.”

2014 70th Annual Conference of the Southeastern College Art Conference, Sarasota, FL, October 8-11 (National Conference in Field) Panel Chair: “Approaches to the Study of Latino Art.”

2014 45th Annual Meeting of the Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies, Modena, Italy, June 26-29 (International Conference in Field) accepted but unable to present “The Art of Painting Polychrome Sculpture in Seventeenth Century Spain.”

2013 The Sixteenth Century Society and Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico, October  24-27 (National Conference in Field) Panel Chair: “Spanish Royal Patronage: Portraits as Propaganda.”

2012 2nd International Meeting of Museums and Collections of Sculpture, Copy and Invention: Models, Replicas, Series and Quotes in European Sculpture, Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid, February 14-16 (International Conference in Area of Study) in The Diffusion of the Devotional Image through the use of the Copy session: “The Essence of the Original: Imitations of Gregorio Fernández’s Cristo yacente.”

2012 68th Annual Conference of the Southeastern College Art Conference, Durham,NC, October 18-20 (National Conference in Field) in Baroque and Rococo Art session: “The Jíbaro Masquerade: Luis Paret y Alcázar’s Self-Portrait of 1776 Revisited”

2012 Athens Institute of Education and Research, 3rd Annual Conference in the Arts, Athens, Greece, June 4-7 (International Conference in Field): “Gregorio Fernández’s Cristo yacente of El Pardo: Iconography and Meaning in Seventeenth-Century Catholic Spain.”

2011 67st Annual Conference of the Southeastern College Art Conference, Savannah, GA, November 9-12 (National Conference in Field)  in Teaching Catholic Art session: “The Seventeenth-Century Spanish Art Survey: Catholic Art in Context.”

2011 The Sixteenth Century Society and Conference, Fort Worth, Texas, October 27-30 (National Conference in Field) in Art in Spain and New Spain session: "The Essence of the Original: Gregorio Fernández's Workshop and Followers."

2011 The Sixteenth Century Society and Conference, Fort Worth, Texas, October 27-30 (National Conference in Field) Panel Chair: "Sacred Art in Italy: Religious Works in Context"

2011 42nd Annual Meeting of the Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies, Lisbon Portugal, June 28- July 3 (International Conference in Field) in Images and Discourses of Power session (Panel Chair and Presenter): “El Cristo yacente: Devotional Sculpture and Andachtsbild.”

2010 66st Annual Conference of the Southeastern College Art Conference, Virginia, October 20-23 (National Conference in Field) in “Picture Perfect.” Truth, falsity and the Polemics of Image Making and Image Breaking in the Early Modern World session: “The Art of Engaño and Desengaño in the Cristos yacentes of Gregorio Fernández.”

2010 Bodies in Art Conference at The Center for Body, Mind and Culture, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Fl, December 2-4 (International Conference on Special Topic): “The Hyper-real Body: The Cristos yacentes of Gregorio Fernández.”

Courses

• Spring 2026
• Fall 2025
• Summer 2025
• Spring 2025
• Fall 2024
• Summer 2024
• Spring 2024
• Fall 2023
• Summer 2023