The New World brought Spain (and ultimately Europe) enormous treasures: gold, silver, chocolate, tomatoes, the potato. Yet Spain"s most powerful ruler, Philip II, lived in austere solitude in a cell-like study. He sought to protect the Catholic faith, while the Spanish author Cervantes questioned all values in Don Quixote, the prototype of the modern novel. At the court, Velazquez painted masterpieces of psychological penetration, and the Baroque style vaulted the Atlantic and celebrated its transformation into a tool for Indian fantasy in the magnificent churches of Potosi and Ocotlan.