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NOTES and TERMS SET 1 Veracruz or Gulf Coast Olmec, Classic Veracruz, and Huastec Cultures Maya Area: northern lowlands, Preclassic, Classic, and Postclassic central lowlands, southern highlands. Maya, Oaxaca or Southern Mexican Highlands Zapotec and Mixtec Cultures Classic Period Classic Maya Culture
AD 300-900 Early Postclassic Toltec Culture AD 900-1200 Late Postclassic Period
Aztec Culture
AD 1325-1521 Olmec Were-Jaguar Isthmus of Tehuantepec Jade = jadeite Classic Veracruz ball game equipment = yokes and hachas Popol Vuh = colonial period Maya book of the adventures of the hero twins and their victory over the lords of the underworld (now in Newberry Library, Chicago) Maya hieroglyphic writing Maya long-count calendar 260-day divinatory calendar Xibalba (She Bal Ba) = Maya underworld Lost-wax casting = the original is formed of wax, a mold is formed around it, molten metal poured into the mold Metallurgy in Mesoamerica by AD 800, gold technology in Maya area, copper technology in West Mexico (ultimate source of both is South America) Oaxaca (Wah Ha h Kah) = modern state that is home of Zapotecs (Valley of Oaxaca and further south) and Mixtecs (Mish Teks) in the Mixteca Alta north of the Valley Codex = work used for screenfold "books", not codexes in European sense of a bound book. Precolumbian Mesoamerican books are long screenfolds of many pages or Tiras (rolled rather than folded books) Stone-age technology = stone and jade worked with stone, wood, and bone tools, also sand, strings, other abrasives Mesoamerican books made of animal skin or native paper (mulberry, fig, or maguey/agave paper) covered with stucco/plaster SET 2 Talud-tablero = typical architectural profile of Teotihuacan; rectangular, framed panel on a sloped base. Other Mesoamerican cities had distinctive variations on the Teotihuacan form. Adosada platform = platform set in front of larger pyramid with staircase up front Great Goddess = seemingly female figures thought by some scholars to be different versions of a great mother earth goddess Apartment compounds = typical Teotihuacan housing. Censer = burner for copal, a resinous material burned in Mesoamerica as an offering especially to the rain god Tlaloc = Aztec name for rain god in Nahuatl language; seen also at Teotihuacan, but his name is unknown because the primary language of the inhabitants of Teotihuacan is unknown. Stela (sing.), Stelae (pl) = upright stone panel for relief carvings, often a single standing figure; most prominent in the Maya area as memorials to particular kings. Polychrome = multiple colors. In Cholula ceramics, these are the result of clay "slips" (liquid clay with pigments of color) applied before firing and burnished.
Borgia Group codices = group of 6 precolumbian books in European collections. They are known to be from Mexico rather than the Maya area, but it is not known where specifically. Scholars have suggested Aztec, Mixtec, Veracruz, Cholula. Mound B at Tula = also called the pyramid of Quetzalcoatl for sentimental reasons. Atlantean figure = figure that supports something, like a table, altar, or roof Colossal = greater than life-size Standard bearer = figure that has a hole meant to hold a flag or banner Plumbate = ceramic type with some lead content, so glossy in surface (precolumbian ceramics are not glazed) SET 3 Archaizing, revivals, continuities, antiquarianism Toltecs = civilized, urban dwellers,
possessors of land, nobility, artists, politically dominant. Toltecs wear: archaizing costume parts from sculptures at Tula (butterfly breast plate and triangular loincloth), dyed cotton mantles (tilmatli), turquoise crowns, sandals, gold, rare bird feathers, noble costumes; sit on woven reed seats and thrones Chichimecs = barbarians, cave dwellers or migrating, commoners, conquered subjects. Also in past these were the Aztecs' ancestors before they settled in the Valley of Mexico and founded their city. "Chichimecs" wear: animal skins or maguey/agave fiber clothes, headdresses with small bundles of bird feathers, plain loin cloths, commoner costumes; sit on bundles of reeds Tula (pronunciation Too Laa) = Tollan (Toe Lan) = ancient Toltec capital, city of revered dynasty and Quetzalcoatl (Feathered Serpent) Teotihuacan (Tay Oh Tee WAA Kan)
= ancient city where sun was born Xochicalco (Show Chee KAL Ko) = ancient city where Aztec-type calendar initiated Old Fire God brazier, Teotihuacan type object, Aztec noticed the pose especially Chacmool, Toltec type object, again the pose is the important part for the Aztec SET 4 Valley/Basin of Mexico City-states = altepetl (sing.), altepeme (pl.) = literally "water-mountain" Four quarters of Tenochtitlan = Moyotlan, Cuepopan, Teopan, Azacuali Tenochtitlan founded in 1325
(2 House) Barrios = tlaxilacaltin (pl.), occupied by individual calpulli (corporate groups), calpultin (pl.) Cortes Map, European map of island of Tenochtitlan Codex Xolotl, native map of Valley of Mexico; the manuscript has 6 maps of same territory at different dates Bernardino de Sahagun (Franciscan), Primeros Memoriales (now in Madrid, Spain), his early book with information collected in the 1540s and 50s, using native informants and artists. A series of recent books from the University of Oklahoma Press reproduce it and translate its texts. Sahagun,'s Florentine Codex (now in Florence, Italy), later book from the 1560s-70s, larger and more synthesized version. There is a facsimile (photographic) edition in Spanish and Nahuatl in Special Collections at ASU. The English version was published in 13 volumes by Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles Dibble (also in Special Collections at ASU). Sahagun's books are the two most important sources on many aspects of Aztec culture; they are like encyclopedias. The most important history is Diego Duran's Historia, written 1568-71, and not published until the 19th century, when it was found in the National Library in Madrid. The best English translation is by Doris Heyden (1994); the best Spanish text is by Angel Ma. Garibay (1967), but it must be checked against the English version, which is more accurate. Valley of Mexico Cities The name Aztec is applied to the inhabitants of the Valley in general, each having more specific ethnic names. Nahuatl was the common language, although there speakers of a few other languages like Otomi. Mexica (tribe/ethnic group) on island cities of Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco. Triple Alliance: Tenochtitlan, Tlacopan, Texcoco Tepanecs on west shore in cities of Azcapotzalco (old imperial capital defeated by Triple Alliance allies in 1428) and Tlacopan (now Tacuba section of Mexico City) Acolhua (Ah Koal Wah) on east shore, principle city is Texcoco; Tetzcotzinco was mountain site with mythic and historical associations, used by Texcocan kings as sacred mountain/country palace retreat Colhua (Koal Wah) in city of
Colhuacan south of the city of Tenochtitlan. The royal line of
Cohuacan 52-year cycle, Aztec "century" Which three were the Triple Alliance cities? "Pleasure gardens" of Tenochca and Texcocans: Chapultepec and Tetzcotzingo (east of Texcoco) Important sacred mountains: Tlaloc, Ixtaccihuatl, Popocatepetl Dates of important events of history: Tepanec War or War of Independence
1428 (1 Flint) Dates of prehispanic Rulers after Tepanec War: Itzcoatl (Obsidian Serpent) 1427-40
Mythic/Deity names: Mexica tribal origin myth at Coatepec (Serpent Mountain): Huitzilopochtli (Hummingbird-on-the-Left), Coatlicue (Serpent Skirt), Coyoxauhqui (Golden Bells or Painted with Bells), Centzonhuitznahua (400 or innumerable brothers) Tlaloc (Path through the Earth):
rain
Major colonial pictorial manuscripts, all painted by native artists in post-Conquest 16th century Codex Borbonicus, Bibliotheque Nacionale Paris, 1521-40, screenfold. Section 1 is a 260-day divinatory book (for prognostication) divided into 20 13-day "weeks"; Section 2 pictures the costumed deity imitators in the ceremonies of the 18 months of the solar year (365 days). Codex Mendoza, probably commissioned by Viceroy Mendoza, 1541-42, European book form. Section 1 represents the years of the Aztec kings' reigns and their conquests through hieroglyphs; section 2 is a tribute list of goods collected from different provinces of the Aztec Empire; section three illustrates daily life in narrative. Codex Telleriano-Remensis (TR), about 1563, European book form, Bibliotheque Nacionale Paris. Aztec history in preconquest style but incorporating European glosses addressed to non-Aztec audience. Diego Duran's Historia de las Indias de Nueva Espana, book form, 1579-81, Biblioteca Nacional Madrid. The illustrations are as important as the text. Bernardino de Sahagun, Primeros memoriales (PM), 1559-61, Madrid (two places), assembled in Tepeapulco (town north of Texcoco). Sahagun, Florentine Codex (FC), 1575-80, Laurentian Library Florence, book form, 12 books, presenting encyclopedic presentation of Aztec life. Each page has both Spanish and Nahuatl text. The illustrations are scattered throughout and were done by various native Mexican artists, all of them amateurs, not the most skilled artists of the time. Undergraduate Paper 1: "Different Modern Views of an Aztec Monument: The Tizoc Stone" In a short paper like this, you will probably take a lot of notes and make a lot of observations; but the trick is to then cut it down to a nice 4-5 page paper. In this first paper you are comparing three different modern interpretations of the same monument, with different emphases, data, and hypotheses. Who wrote the articles and when? Do they cite each other? Since the first two were written at about the same time, they do not cite each other. Townsend's is a little later and he may have been aware of Wicke, but he doesn't cite him by name. Umberger has read and cites the two earlier authors, about 20 years later. You may use Umberger to help you think about the earlier two and concentrate on them principally; it may give some perspective on their views. Or you may give equal time to all three. There are two ways of setting
up a comparison. In both types, you have to be
consistent; ask the same questions of all three articles. You
cannot cover all similarities and differences, so you need to
make a choice on what you wish to emphasize. The most difficult
part of the task is to characterize the differences, to find
the proper words to express it. How does each author deal with
the monument's discovery? The monument's conventions? Which primary sources are cited
(that is, colonial, 16th century written and pictorial sources)? What is the organization of the
article? SET 5: TEMPLO MAYOR Major phases of Templo Mayor: Phase II (green), hieroglyphic dates 1House and 2 Rabbit on front on pyramid corresponding to 1390 and 91, early chacmool still in place on that phase, only upper part of platform uncovered due to ground water. Several early kings. Phase III (yellow), hieroglyphic date 4 Reed on back, 1431, celebrating foundation of the Triple Alliance empire in that year, ruler Itzcoatl's major rebuilding of whole structure. Phase IV (dark blue), hieroglyphic date 1 Rabbit on back, 1454, celebrating the beginning of a new 52-year cycle, ruler Motecuhzoma I's major rebuilding of whole structure. Phase IVB (light blue), hieroglyphic date 3 House on side, 1469, beginning of reign of Axayacatl. This is the only platform in front of the pyramid to be excavated in modern times. It has on it the Great Coyolxauhqui Stone, the orange archaizing Toltec-style funerary vases, and many offering chambers, and was visible during the events of the Aztec civil war with Tlatelolco. Phase V (green), no date glyphs remaining. I suggest that it is Axayacatl's rebuilding of the whole temple, perhaps to commemorate the 1479 anniversary of the birth (in myth) of the sun in 13 Reed, and the anniversary of the events of 1 Flint, of which there were several and all related to Aztec political rise. It was the date of Huitzilopochtli's birth, the date the Aztecs left their homeland (wandering under Huitzilopochtli's directions), and the year (1428) of the beginning of the Tepanec war. The Toltec style room under the Eagle Temple platform dates to this phase. Phase VI (purple), no date glyphs remaining. This was probably the phase recorded in the Codex Telleriano-Remensis (TR) with the multiple scenes of its building by the rulers Tizoc and Ahuitzotl, and dedicated in 1487. The Tizoc Stone was probably located on its platform. The platforms around the temple were built in this time: the pseudo Teotihuacan style platform and the Eagle Temple platform. Phase VII (brown), no date glyphs remaining. This is probably the phase visible at the time of the Spanish Conquest, built by Motecuhzoma II. Very little remains; he seems to have raised the floor of the precinct around the temple by a meter, and then the temple itself, but nothing of this remains. Nor is it known what event he was celebrating; perhaps the beginning of the next 52-year cycle, whose ceremonies were spread over the first two years, 1 Rabbit and 2 Reed (1506-07).
SET 6: OTHER MONUMENTS 1. Tizoc Stone. Polished brown, unpainted stone, ca. 10' diameter, carved about 1485 (National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico). The blurb for the previous illustration of the Tizoc Stone focussed on its "archaizing" and foreign style characteristics. Here we look at it from several other points of view. The Tizoc Stone is the subject of three assigned articles, so that you can see how different scholars look at the same monument. It is a great sacrificial stone, carved by Tizoc's artists in 1485 and used for the first time for the sacrifice of war captives from the Matlatzinca area to the west of Tenochtitlan. After Tizoc's death it was used for the sacrifice of prisoners from all over the empire at the celebration of the completion in 1487 of the Templo Mayor, which itself commemorated the beginning of the empire in 1431. Thus the monument pictures the whole empire as corresponding to a cylindrical diagram of the cosmos. Around the sides are 15 pairs of figures, captives and Aztec captors. In addition to being cast into the role of Chichimecs, the conquered figures are also identified by the hieroglyphs of the tribes they came from. They stand between bands representing sky and earth in a Mixtec stylization. The sun disc on the top has a vessel in the middle. The channel cut into the stone was probably made to release the overflow of blood. See the three assigned articles for further details. 2. Tizoc Stone. Close-up of figures. On the far left is the ruler Tizoc, with his hieroglyph, a leg. He wears a hummingbird headdress on his head as well as Toltec gear. He conquers the Matlatzincatl, person from Matlatzinco (remember the stone was first used to commemorate this victory). The figures on the right are an unidentified Aztec dressed as Tezcatlipoca (Smoking Mirror) conquering the Tlatelolcatl, person from Tlatelolco (Tlatelolco is the twin island city which was conquered by the Tenochca Aztecs in 1473 during the civil war). 3. Tizoc Stone. Drawing of whole. Sun disc on top, and 15 pairs of figures between earth and sky bands. 4. Tizoc stone. Drawing of 15 pairs of figures with tribal glyphs colored yellow and feathers indicating blood-letting or sacrifice colored red. 5. Tizoc Stone. Drawing of conquest of person from Xochimilco ("Flower Field"), colored yellow to show that the whole figure and the pictograph of a "flower field" together form the hieroglyph for a person who represents the Xochimilca tribe; she is the Xochimilcatl. 6. Tlatelolca captive compared to god Painal in Primeros Memoriales. This is an illustration of Wicke's reasoning, showing how he used a colonial pictorial source, the PM, to identify one of the figures on the Tizoc Stone as the god Painal, because of the painted face stripes and "starry sky" mask they have in common. Umberger, on the other hand, identifies the same figure as Tlatelolca Huitzilopochtli, because he is the god mentioned in written accounts of the battle with Tlatelolco, who was captured afterward and brought back to Tenochtitlan. 7. Matlatzinca captive compared to Tezcatlipoca in Primeros Memoriales. Likewise, Wicke used the colonial PM to identify the Matlatzinca captive as Tezcatlipoca (from the staff he is carrying), whereas Umberger identifies him as Coltzin from written accounts of the war. 8. Codex Telleriano Remensis. This page of Telleriano Remensis is used by Umberger to place the Tizoc Stone in an exact historical context. The gloss in Spanish "bloodied stone" is identified by her as referring to the Tizoc Stone, which was first used at this time when the pyramid platform was finished and initiated with prisoners from the Matlatzinca area. The manuscript reveals that the creation of a sacrificial stone and an image of Coyolxauhqui were stages in the rebuilding of the Templo Mayor. 9. Codex Telleriano Remensis. This phase (probably archaeological Phase VI) of the Templo Mayor is pictured as completed and initiated with even more captives. The illustrations picture the dead Tizoc, his successor the living Ahuitzotl, and some of the elements of the initiation ceremony: sacrificial captives from named places and a new fire. Umberger hypothesizes that the Tizoc Stone was created by Tizoc to take the place of honor in this ceremony too, as one of four places on the top of the pyramid where people were sacrificed to celebrate the triumph of the Aztec empire. 10. Calendar Stone, painted porous volcanic stone, ca. 10' in diameter, carved in 1512 as Montezuma II's sacrificial stone (National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico). It was excavated in 1791 from the Main Plaza of Mexico City, and then set vertically into a tower of the National Cathedral, where it was called popularly Montezuma's Clock. The stone is a raised circular disc which still is attached to the stone on the probably square platform that it was on originally on a low pyramid in the ceremonial precinct. 11. Calendar Stone, colored drawing. It has a large number of hieroglyphs on it, but none corresponding to 1512, the date it was carved according to one colonial written history (Torquemada). The commemorated year is 13 Reed in the distant past, the date of the birth of the sun in myth. Also on the monument are the dates of the five suns. The face of the "present sun" emerges from the center as if from the underworld on the day of its birth. It is surrounded/framed by its calendrical name, 4 Movement, the day it began to move, 4 days after its birth on the day 13 Reed. In the four arms of the frame are the calendrical names of the present sun's predecessors, the suns of four previous eras: 4 Jaguar, 4 Rain, 4 Wind, and 4 Water. Surrounding these are the 20 day signs of the calendar; these names meshed with the numbers 1 through 13 were repeated over and over again until 260 days passed, and the first day, 1 Crocodile recurred. (this was the 260-day divinatory cycle; the solar cycle consisted of the same days but counted to 365 days.) On the Calendar Stone, around the day signs are symbols of preciousness: jade, turquoise, blood, and gold sun rays. Framing the outside of the circular stone are two fire serpents, imaginary serpents that carried the sun through the sky. Most interpretations of the Calendar Stone focus on the calendrical aspects and the complexity of its composition, which interpreters used as proof of the Aztecs' intellectual abilities. More recently there has been an emphasis on the myth of the five suns. Less often mentioned is that it was actually a sacrificial stone, which would contradict the view of the Aztecs as "rational," and the fact that it was made at a particular time in history. The clue to its historical date is the name glyph of the ruler Montezuma II above the sun's face. The date 1512 is given in a colonial history as the year that Montezuma II had his great sacrificial stone made. 12. Calendar Stone. Close-up of central section of Calendar Stone, showing two hieroglyphs above the sun's face. On the left is the hieroglyph of the name of the last Aztec king, Montezuma II. The hieroglyph represents the figure of the king; it is "dressed" with a blood-letting feather symbol on the top of the head, a Toltec breastplate below, and a "feathered serpent" speech scroll attached to the nose ornament. Facing the glyph is the calendrical name glyph of the god Huitzilopochtli; it too is anthropomorphized, made human through its decoration. It has a face and teeth, a "smoking mirror" of divinatory power on the side of its "forehead," and a woven hanging from the mirror. The two hieroglyphs stand in for the figures of the king and the god. As can be seen here, Aztec hieroglyphic writing, being pictographic, does not function like European alphabetic writing. The Aztecs took advantage of its pictoriality and made the glyphs something beyond references to individual words. 13. Great Coatlicue, painted volcanic stone, about 9' tall, carved probably about 1491, date 12 Reed on back (National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico). Like the Tizoc and Calendar Stones, it was found under the Main Plaza of Mexico City, in 1790. It was subsequently buried, because of its imagery, considered both religious and frightening, for several decades until it was put in a museum context. The event commemorated is unknown. This sculpture is carved on all sides including the bottom. It is an anthropomorphic image in that it stands up like a person. It is made female by the skirt and the breasts. It is an image of the earth goddess in a hostile aspect, in that it is intimidating and covered with snakes rather than the jade jewels that represented the fertile, giving earth. And it is an image of a sacrificed earth goddess, in that it was decapitated and two great blood serpents rise from the torso to form the face; likewise, the hands have been cut off and are replaced by serpents. In both cases simultaneous images are formed. The serpent teeth look like fingers of raised hands, and the two serpent heads form a face. There may have been 6 of these sculptures originally in the temple of Huitzilopochtli. It is called Coatlicue, "Serpent Skirt," because of the serpent skirt, but cannot be matched with extant versions of the myth of the birth of Huitzilopochtli from Serpent Skirt. The sculpture is a more complex image of the earth as female, mountain, place of sacrifice (blood and hands and hearts necklace), and place where the elements of society come together (this last is represented by the intertwined serpents). It is the earth before the sun is born. A blood serpent between the legs gives an ambiguous sexual message. Is it symbolic of a stream of menstrual blood or is it a phallic symbol? The feet may be huge clawed bird's feet. This is a very complex image, incorporating a lot of Aztec metaphors about sacrifice and the earth. 14. La Malinche Cliff Relief, carved and painted on cliff rock facing the ancient deserted city of Tula. This sculpture is easier to understand than the last two sculptures, and can be linked to a contemporary political event. The figure on the left is the frontally presented water goddess Chalchiuhtlicue, "Jade Skirt." Next to her is the year date 8 Flint, 1500, the year of a great flood in Tenochtitlan. The carving was probably the result of a ritual journey of priests and artists from Tenochtitlan to Tula, the ancient city of the ruler/god Quetzalcoatl (Feathered Serpent) to petition the goddess, who was specifically the goddess of the Aztec lake, to stop the flooding. Facing the goddess in profile is the former king (now a god) Quetzalcoatl, named by his calendar date 1 Reed above the figure. He faces the goddess and draws blood from his ear, a blood offering to her. He stands in for the Aztec king of the time, Ahuitzotl, who was blamed for the flood, because he had a neighboring ruler murdered to get access to a spring for an aqueduct he was building. Quetzalcoatl, as a Toltec king, was a special model for the Aztec kings. The final date on the cliff, the day 4 Reed, was the day on which rulers were installed. This probably refers to the installation of the son of the murdered king on his rightful throne. 15. Teocalli (Temple), painted volcanic stone, ca. 4' tall, carved on all sides except the bottom (National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico). This represents a miniature pyramid and at the same time, a king's symbolic throne. It was discovered under the National Palace of Mexico in 1926. Diego Rivera featured an exact copy of the eagle on the back of the throne in a mural in the stairway of the National Palace a few years later. The National Palace is on the site of the palace of Montezuma II, and this miniature throne was probably in a type of throne room in the palace. There were probably earlier versions created for earlier kings, but none have been found. The seat of the throne is a pyramid with an "earth monster" on the surface where the king would have sat. The back of the "seat" has a sun disc in the center, where the king's back would be, and the figures of Huitzilopochtli and Montezuma flanking the sun, just as their hieroglyphs face each other above the sun on the Calendar Stone. 16. Teocalli. View down onto earth monster on seat of monument. The monster is seen from the back; elbows and knees touch; the mouth, lined with flint knives, frames the stairway. 17. Teocalli. Drawing of back of monument with figures of the god and king flanking the sun disc. 18. Ceramic Figurine. This ceramic figurine, seen before, shows a figure dressed as a god sitting on a similar miniature pyramid and holding a sun disc on his back. This shows that the pyramid could be conceived as a throne, and a seat of cosmically-endorsed power. It represents the earth with the sun on top. 19. Teocalli. The back of the Teocalli has a hieroglyphic name of the city of Tenochtitlan. Tenochtitlan means "place of the prickly pear cactus." The back of the teocalli pictures the glyph, the prickly pear cactus, but within a scene of the foundation of the city. The Aztecs, after swimming to the island, saw the eagle on the cactus that their god Huitzilopochtli said was the sign that they were to build their city there. On the monument, an eagle perches on a cactus that grows from the reclining body of the goddess of water, Chalchiuhtlicue (compare this to her image on the Malinche Cliff Relief). The goddess is included because when the monument was carved in 1507, Tenochtitlan had recently returned to normal conditions after a period of 8 years of flooding and drought. The goddess symbolizes the subdued lake. The placement of the city's name glyph on the back of a miniature pyramid/mountain makes the monument a glyph-in-the-round representing the concept of Tenochtitlan altepetl (city, literally "water mountain"). It is a throne specifically for the king of Tenochtitlan, and represents his city as a mountain
SET 7: AZTECS IN EARLY COLONIAL PERIOD 1. Santa Cruz Map of early colonial Mexico City, 1556-62, artist: Alonso de Santa Cruz (native Mexican)(Uppsala Universitetsbibliotek, Uppsala, Sweden). (the island is seen from the East) Spanish (pink) and Indian (red) buildings highlighted. Note the outlines of the Traza (green), and the four Indian quarter churches (red), the location of the San Juan Tenochtitlan Tecpan (government palace, red), the San Jose de los Naturales chapel (red) next to San Francisco, and the Tecpan and church of Santiago Tlatelolco. The friezes of circles on the facades of lboth native and Spanish buildings are copied from the friezes on high status Aztec buildings (see closer view of the Tecpan of Tenochtitlan in the Codex Osuna below). The Spanish conquest of the Aztecs was completed in 1521. Colonial Mexico City was founded in the 1520s over the ruins of the center of the Aztec imperial capital, Tenochtitlan. Thus, the conqueror Hernan Cortes' palace was built on the ruins of the Aztec king Montezuma's palace; and the Casas Reales, the first Spanish government building was built on the site of the palace of Montezuma's father (Axayacatl), where the Spaniards had been housed before routing the Aztecs in 1521. The Spanish conquistadores and three monastic orders--the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians--were among the first settlers of the new city. The first archbishop was Juan de Zumarraga (a Franciscan) and the first viceroy ("vice-king" like a vice president) was Antonio Mendoza, who commissioned the Codex Mendoza (the manuscript with the kings and their conquests and the tribute lists shown in class). The Spanish reserved for themselves the center of the former Aztec city, which they called the Traza, and pushed its Indian inhabitants into the outer four quarters of the city. Little now remains of the four churches built by Spaniards on the quarter centers of the Aztec city. The main Indian government of the city was in the San Juan quarter (upper left quarter on map), and the government palace, the Tecpan, was probably fairly close to the SW corner of the Traza, in which was located the center of elite Indian Christian devotion, the "open chapel" of San Jose de los Naturales. San Jose was within the compound of the Franciscan monastery, San Francisco, but also adjacent to the Indian community. Also in the environs of San Francisco were an important school for native artisans (also called San Jose) and schools for Indian girls and meztizos (children of mixed Spanish and Indian blood). Aztec descendants are called Nahuas (for their native language of Nahuatl). They and other Indian groups were called indios or Native Mexicans. Spaniards were called guachupines or peninsulares, while Spaniards born in the New World were called, creoles, criollos in English. During this period most architects were Spaniards and most builders, sculptors, and painters of buildings were native Mexicans. 2. Santa Cruz Map, close-up of Traza and central area of 1550s Mexico City.
3. Tecpan, painter: Unknown native Mexican, colonial Indian government palace in the San Juan quarter of the new Spanish capital. The illustration is from the Codex Osuna, painted by an unknown Indian artist, 1565 (Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid). Indian and Spanish governing officials are seated below the Tecpan (Judge Don Esteban de Guzman, and Viceroy Don Luis de Velasco). The Tecpan follows a traditional Aztec palace form, with enclosed courtyard and the most important space on the second floor opposite the entrance, but the round-headed arches reveal Spanish influence. The frieze of circles is symbolic of noble status. In addition to picturing the colonial Tecpan, the codex is an example of the fine, native Renaissance style practiced in urban Mexico in the late 16th century. It is a multi-page book commissioned as a complaint about treatment of the native workmen. 4. San Jose de los Naturales, the "open chapel" for elite Indians in Mexico City, constantly enlarged from 1527-1563, pictured in the Codex Aubin, 1563, artist: Unknown native artist. San Jose was in the Franciscan compound of Mexico City. It was the focus of ceremonies in early to mid 16th century Mexico City, not just for native elites but also for the whole city, as in the funerary ceremonies honoring the death of Charles V in 1559 (Charles died in 1558). Next to it was the school to train Indian artisans. 5. Santiago Tlatelolco, northern section of Mexico City. Close-up of Santa Cruz Map. Tlatelolco, in pre-Conquest times had the center of a second Aztec city that rivaled Tenochtitlan, until the civil war between them in 1473 (50 years before the Conquest) resulted in its demotion to barrio status. After the Spanish Conquest, however, Tlatelolco was a second focus of Indian education and government and was the only center of elite Indian life in the city to persist into the late 18th century. By this time, the San Juan Tecpan of Mexico City seems to have moved into the Santiago Tecpan of Tlatelolco. Located in the map are the early church on the site, the Indian market, and the Tecpan. The Franciscan school, the Colegio de Santa Cruz, was attached to the church. This was where elite Indian students learned philosophy, theology, and writing in Spanish, Latin, and the Aztec language (Nahuatl) as well as picture-writing in the style of their Aztec ancestors. This school is also where Fray Bernardino de Sahagun, using native informants and native student artists, compiled his Florentine Codex, the single most important source on the Aztecs. 6. Typical Monastery plan, Calpan (Puebla), representing the standardized plan found at many monasteries built after 1550: west-facing single-naved church, monastery buildings on south side, portería (arcade) entrance, open chapel (here in façade, but sometimes free-standing next to church); large, walled atrio (courtyard) with long east-west axis in front of church; stone cross in center of atrio; and four posas at corners of atrio. 7. Monastery at Acolman, Augustinian, State of Mexico, east of Tenochtitlan in the Valley of Mexico, 1560. Church and cloister facades. This monastery was constructed soon after the main Augustinian monastery in Mexico City, which has long since disappeared and which was probably very similar. The simple, one cell open chapel is set into the space to the right of the facade, a covered place to display the Sacrament to the large congregation of Indians in the atrio below (the Sacrament represented the body/blood of Christ and had to be covered by a roof). 8. Angel on facade, sculptor: Unknown native Mexican/s, Augustinian monastery at Acolman, Spanish Renaissance style facade, 1560.
9. Capital in cloister, sculptor: Unknown native Mexican/s, Augustinian monastery at Acolman. Both the angel on the facade and the capital of the column in the cloister were probably carved by native Mexicans, but in noticeably different styles. On the facade, the feathers of the wings of the angel are in different sizes and on different levels of relief. On the capital, the feathers or petals are more regularized to modular repeated shapes, all on the same level. There were multiple native artists working in guild-like teams on these monastic decorations, and even those that were highly trained worked in styles that combined different degrees of knowledge of pre-Conquest native and imported European carving styles. The carver of the angel was trained in European sculpting; the carver of the capital was working in a style resembling a pre-conquest style (but 40 years after the Conquest!). 10. Posa at Huejotzingo Monastery, mid-late 16th century, Franciscan. The posa, one of four at the corners of the atrio of this monastery, has relatively simple decorations: rope and chain moldings, angels carrying symbols of Christ's Passion (events leading up to his death), and monograms of Christ and the Virgin. 11. Close-up of posa with frieze of circles on the interior, like the contemporary native-style friezes in Mexico City. Also very interesting is the use of a frame that looks like a Teotihuacan style tablero. Since Aztec architects were accustomed to reviving ancient styles like this (e.g. the Teotihuacan style buildings in the archaeological remains of Tenochtitlan), this seems to be a purposeful revival with a meaning known to the Indians, and possibly the Spaniards. Unfortunately, the 16th-th century architecture of Mexico City is now gone, so we do not know if these frames were also featured there with the friezes of circles. Posas are described as having been at the Mexico City monastic churches, and still exist in several central Mexican churches like this one. They were used for stopping places during religious circuits around the atrio, and their symbols may have been used for religious instruction of the natives, looking as they do like "hieroglyphs" abbreviated pictorial symbols of the types used by the Aztecs. Some posas were dedicated to saints and had altars inside. Others seem to have been used by different segments of Indian society, e.g. men, women, girls, or boys, or by different confraternities, lay groups of men who organized festivals dedicated to different cults and saints. 12. Atrio cross, sculptor: Unknown native Mexican/s, Augustinian Monastery at Acolman, second half 16th century. Symbols of Christ's Passion are in low relief on the shaft, but the face of Christ from the Veil of Veronica is in high relief at the crossing, anthropomorphizing the cross itself. The arms of the cross have vines with flowers covering them, recalling the Aztec association of blood with flowers (flowers were an Aztec metaphor for blood; e.g. a flowery field was a battlefield covered with dead warriors). So, despite acknowledgement of some Spanish prohibitions, e.g. the unspoken prohibition against the representation of Christ's crucified (in other words, sacrificed) body on a monument visible to less christianized native commoners, the native artists have included details that would have been understood differently by a native audience. They combined human and non-human forms (body and cross) as in the pre-conquest the figurine that merged the god's body with a temple/pyramid/mountain, and they used flowers to evoke pre-conquest religious ideas about blood. The friars may have known something about Aztec flower imagery, but did not have a really deep understanding of the differences between native and Christian associations.
13. Crucifixion Mural, painter: Unknown native Mexican, fresco painting in monastery of Acolman, Augustinian, in cloister, second half 16th century. The painting is in an area, the cloister, to which only friars and Europeans had access. This is also an example of a native artist painting a completely European looking painting from a European print source (thus the monochrome black and white). One cannot see his ethnicity in the style. The painting is totally orthodox also in its iconography, in contrast to the public atrio cross in the same monastery. Only noble Europeanized Indians would have been allowed to paint such images on the interior of the monastery, where the audience was the friars and not the congregation of commoner Indians. It is probable that such a painter was trained at the noble school at Tlatelolco, rather than the artisan school at San Jose. 14. Battle of Christian and Barbarian Natives, artist/s: Unknown native Mexican/s, drawing of fresco mural of battle of Christianized Otomi Indian warriors against uncoverted "barbarian" Indians, in nave of monastery church at Ixmiquilpan (State of Hidalgo), Augustinian, 1560s. The nave of a church was midway between the cloister and the atrio in terms of relative restriction of congregation. It would have been an area occupied during church services by a congregation of relatively elite natives. The local Otomi leaders were very powerful figures in the colonial period. They lived on the border between urbanized, civilized central Mexico and the area occupied by what the Aztecs called "Chichimecs" or barbarians to the north. After the advent of Christianity in central Mexican, the definition of civilized was changed to include Europeanization and Christianization as pre-requisites. The nave paintings are allegorical representations of a battle with pairs of confronting warriors, one civilized and carrying a macana (obsidian bladed sword) and the other a barbarian with a bow and arrow. Here the civilized figures represent the Christian Otomi who fought with the Spanish against unsubdued tribes to the north. The Otomi lords gained great advantages in these wars and power, as they were able to found towns, haciendas, and mines in the newly opened areas. 15. Battle of "grotesque" warriors, French Book of Hours, 1498. The Ixmiquilpan murals are a conflation of European and native forms and ideas. Here is a border from the bottom of a European book made long before the Conquest of the Aztecs, representing the same idea of confronting warriors, entangled in large pieces of vegetation. In the mural the huge vine that wends its way through is an acanthus plant, an imported European plant that is ubiquitous in Classical decoration.
16. Defeat of Barbarian by Aztec warrior, Pre-Conquest Aztec monument, Stone of Tizoc, 1485, warfare between civilized Toltecs (Aztec ancestors) and barbarian Chichimecs. We see the same contrast set up in this pre-conquest Aztec monument between civilized and uncivilized warriors, according to the winners. The Otomi, who were on the northern edge of the Valley of Mexico, would have been very familiar with this idea associated with conquest. In addition, native Mexicans would have understood a central argument that raged in European circles at the time of the Spanish conquest, to wit, whether warfare against New World peoples was justified by their subsequent conversion to Christianity. This was an extension in the New World of the ideas that propelled the European crusades against Islam in the Holy Land and against the Islamic Moors who were expelled from Spain in 1492. In Aztec thought, warfare was also conceived of as justified for religious purposes, in that the captives of war were sacrificed to keep supply vital sustenance for the sun and cosmos. 17. Virgin of Guadalupe, artist: Unknown native Mexican, pigment on plant fiber (maguey or palm), image in the Guadalupe Basilica, mid to late 16th century. Unlike many European images of the Virgin at this time, this one lacks all the explanatory attributes. It is an image painted in the late 16th century Renaissance Indian style, a beautiful image in a style close to European, but recognizable at the time as a native production; it is purposefully native especially in the use of native fiber for the cloth/cloak it appears on. It must have been created by the well educated native elites at the time, probably in collaboration with some Spaniards, to be a specifically Mexican image in a style acceptable to Europeans. At the time there was some controversy about whether native artists should be allowed to make images of Holy figures, because of their incomplete religious preparation and what Renaissance Europeans would have considered an inappropriate style of human portrayal. At this time the Catholic church was especially sensitive about the portrayal of religious figures in art, because of the Protestant Reformation and subsequent Catholic Counter-Reformation and its new emphasis on the power of religious imagery. (The Protestants objected to the use of religious images and the cult of holy people, while Islam prohibited figural portrayals in public art). 18. Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, artist: unknown native Mexican, mural in Franciscan monastery, second half 16th century. The image of the Virgin from about the same date is an interesting comparison with the previous image. It points out the Guadalupe's purposeful "Indianess" and also the ambiguity of the image, which lacks all emblematic elaboration and the words used here to explain and limit the meaning of the image.
19. Codex Telleriano-Remensis, 1563, artists: multiple unknown native Mexicans, in traditional Aztec style, page representing events of the years 1485-87, death of King Tizoc, accession of Ahuitzotl, and completion of the Great Temple. 20. Codex Telleriano-Remensis, page illustrating events after the Conquest. Here the traditional native style is used to record colonial events. Format, figure styles, types of events recorded, and their conventionalization are pre-Conquest in inspiration. This type of manuscript, now in a European collection, may be a copy sent to Europe of a historical manuscript or wall mural used by colonial Mexicans in a native government building, like the Tecpan in Mexico City.
21. Florentine Codex, 1578-80, artists: multiple unknown native Mexicans, compiled and directed by Bernardino de Sahagún. This is an example from the manuscript of a colonial native artist's use of a traditional pre-conquest style to represent a pre-conquest event, the ruler Moctezuma receiving tribute. The people, objects, and building are in the same scale and are presented with their most characteristic views visible. There is no attempt to create an illusionistic, Renaissance space, and the objects are unmodeled, presented as "scattered attributes" against a neutral white background. 22. Florentine Codex, page depicting
a feather worker working in colonial times, rendered in more
European style. Notice the combination of Aztec and European-influenced
ways of picturing objects in space. The feather worker is dressed
in colonial native clothing and is located in a European-style
constructed space with a floor. The architectural structure and
background are indicated in relative scale with the figure and
create an environment around him. However, the artist decided
to display the artisan's feather productions in a pre-conquest
"scattered attribute" style, as in the previous slide.
The two pictures were made at the same time and the artists purposely
chose native and European styles for expressive purposes. SET 8: THE LATER COLONIAL PERIOD IN MEXICO 1. Indian Village Biombo (painted screen used as room divider), artist: Unknown Mexican, late 17th century, originally in collection of the Brotherhood of Charity, Seville (Museo de América, Madrid). It was probably brought to Spain from Mexico by a member of this charitable organization, interested in the lower classes of Spanish society. This is a unique screen in several ways: it is the only one to focus on Indian life, and put it in a rural setting; it also presents a relatively sympathetic view of Indians, although moralizing. The scene is divided into the scenes in the left foreground where commoner Indians get the intoxicating drink, pulque, from a maguey plant and become drunk and rowdy. In the right background Indian nobles enact their own version of the Christian ceremony of Corpus Christi (dedicated to Christ's Body). Dressed in archaizing Aztec warrior costumes they dance a circle dance around an Aztec wooden drum. Among their number are a figure carrying an Aztec god on his back (a god-bearer) and another dressed to represent the ruler Montezuma. Other scenes feature the lighting of a fireworks tree topped by the Monstrance/Sacrament (the monstrance is the container for the bread, the Sacrament, representing the Body of Christ, that is Corpus Christi) placed on top of the Eagle and Cactus that is the emblem of the ancient Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlan. In the center of the biombo is a volador ceremony (or voladores = fliers), where Indians dressed as 16th-century Spanish conquistadors descend on ropes from a pole. The whole ceremony is a celebration of the arrival of Spanish Christians and the substitution of Christ and His sacrifice for pagan versions. Traditional native ceremonies are represented but within a Spanish/Christian context. The end result is the triumph of Christianity. The Monstrance represents Christ who replaces the pagan deities (the figure carried by the god-bearer in the circle dance) and the pagan god-king, Montezuma who dances in the circle. It also represents Christ's sacrifice which replaces Aztec human sacrifice. 2. Village Biombo, close-up of drinking native commoners. 3-5. Village Biombo, volador pole, close-up of drinking commoners in front of pole, close-up of voladores (flyers) descending on ropes. They are dressed in 16th-century Spanish clothing and light face masks, and represent the arrival of Europeans. 6. Village Biombo, close-up of native nobles, wearing shoes and elaborate festival clothing. The men wear archaizing loin cloths over their culottes (calzones). 7. Village Biombo, circle dance of natives in pre-conquest warrior costumes around native wooden drum. They are wearing "archaizing" costumes imitating the type that their ancestors wore. The costumes are not exactly what the Aztecs wore (they were made in colonial times) but are fairly authentic. However, those with feather "skirts" and headdresses are a by-now standardized European costume denoting a New World Indian (originally Brazilian, not Aztec). Other warriors in the circle dance wear fitted warrior costumes and carry macanas, now of gold rather than wood and obsidian. 8. Village Biombo, close-up of dancer dressed as Montezuma. Montezuma wears a fitted warrior costume and a native cloak. The costumes are of feathers, but by this date they would be dyed feathers not the naturally bright colored bird feathers that the Aztecs demanded in long-distance tribute from tropical areas. Such ceremonial costumes, by the way, were passed down through families in wills. 9. Village Biombo, close-up of dancers in warrior costumes and on far right commoner carrying a deity (Quetzalcoatl?). 10. Village Biombo, fireworks "tree" symbolizing Spanish/Christian victory over the Aztecs: at the top is the Monstrance/Sacrament, symbolizing Christ's body and sacrifice as the final sacrifice that redeems all mankind (thus making Aztec human sacrifice unnecessary). 11. Village Biombo, close-up of(symbolic) Monstrance, Eagle, and Cactus. 12. Techialoyan Book, Codex of San Cristobal Coyotepec, attributed to Miguel de Santa Maria Moteczozomatzin (Montezuma family), from the town/village of San Cristobal Coyotepec, Mexico, ca. 1710, handmade amate (plant fiber) paper, ink, watercolor, 16 3/8 x 10 7/16 in. (Brooklyn Museum). The Biombo shown in the last few slides represents a metropolitan, Spanish/creole view of native life, while this type of document is an example of native self-representation. The group of manuscripts in this particular style are called Techialoyans. Techialoyan is the name of the town where the first one identified came from. They are now recognized by scholars as 18th-century documents meant to be passed off as 16th century documents. On its pages are figures in archaizing warrior costumes with macanas, fishing and field scenes, plus scenes with women, houses, etc. The argument between scholars about this type of book is the extent to which it can be considered fraudulent. All manuscripts in the style date between the late 17th century and early 18th century, and are believed to have been made by a single "workshop," in other words a group of closely connected artists/creators. A native man of the lower native nobility named Don Diego Garcia Mendoza Moctezuma was tried in 1710 by the Mexican judiciary for distributing a type of manuscript whose description sounds like this group, and if he did create these for villages like San Christobal, his action was probably criminal. He was selling them for profit. However, the villagers, who bought and tried to use these manuscripts as if they were 16th century documents of the extent of their village lands, were trying to support traditional claims, and for this reason their motivations are more justifiable. Mexican courts were used to accepting pictorial documents from natives, but even they weren't fooled by this group--as far as is known, none were accepted by a court. 13. Techialoyan Page, from another book, ca. 1700, a close-up of a scene of figures dressed in archaizing costumes, this time probably "chichimec" costumes, perhaps from a ceremony like the one depicted on the Village Biombo. Pseudo-battles performed in colonial times appeared in civic displays as well as religious festivals, and opposing groups could be Moors vs. Christians, Aztecs vs. Chichimecs, as well as Aztecs vs. Spaniards. 14. Techialoyan Map, Codex of San Pedro Atlapolco, from town/village of San Pedro Atlapolco, Mexico, 18th century, handmade amate paper, ink, watercolor, 30 5/8 x 38 5/16 in. (Brooklyn Museum). This Techialoyan manuscript is in the form of a large sheet, a type of map, not a book. Although created in the 18th century, it depicts a scene from the 16th century, the arrival of a friar in the town and the building of the first church, which stands unfinished in the background. Roads come from different directions and meet at the church (as in a map). The native nobility, men and women, are seen in the center around a table where a friar writes, perhaps a reference to the very document we are seeing. In contrast to the 16th-century Codex Xolotl, which is also in map form, this one marks the "refoundation" of the town as a Christian community at the time of Spanish arrival, rather than mapping pre-Conquest history. 15. 18th Century Native Map, Unknown native artist, Mapa de Contlanzinco, oil on canvas, 74 x 54 cm., Biblioteca Nacional de Antropologia e Historia 35-34, Mexico. This map also depicts the land claimed by a particular native town or village and is in the style of some early colonial maps that still exist (called relaciones geograficas). However, the use of oil paint on canvas that the village had this new version made when the old (paper) one wore out. It is probably not an attempted forgery like the Techialoyan manuscripts. 16. 18th Century Native Map, Unknown Indian artist, Lienzo de San Pedro de Ixcatlan, on cotton/canvas, 128 x 138 cm., Princeton University Library. A lienzo is painted on cotton cloth. This painted map on cotton comes from the Mazateca area in NW Oaxaca, and features the baptism of the town's nobles upon Spanish arrival in the 16th century (that is, another version of the conversion to Christianity scene). Again this is probably a late colonial copy of an earlier document and not an intended forgery. It is similar in this central scene to the Techialoyan map, but is not in the same distinctive style which signals an attempt to defraud. 17. 18th Century Native Map, close-up of baptism of nobles from the previous map. 18. Lienzo de Tetlama, modern photo of the men of the town of Tetlama, modern state of Morelos, holding their very large village map. It is called a lienzo because it is on cloth. This map dates from sometime in the colonial period and is still in the possession of the village, unlike those shown before which are now in museums and libraries. 19. 18th Century Genealogy. This consists of six paintings on canvas glued to a sheet of paper. Five of the figures are European-style paintings of pre-Conquest Aztec rulers (with their hieroglyphic names). The sixth is a colonial native noble who claims descent from these Aztec kings. 20. 18th Century Genealogy, close-up of native noble, Don Diego Mendoza Moctezuma (is he the same Don Diego who was tried for distributing fraudulent land claim documents?). His clothes reveal him as of the native nobility in the area of Mexico City. Heraldic devices around his head testify to his status. The helmet is a European device, while the macana (sword), the coyote head (the name glyph of a famous Aztec king), and the hill/place sign are specifically native devices. 21. Oil Portrait of Native Woman, Anonymous artist, Indian cacica Dona Juana Juarez Cortes Chimalpopoca, oil on canvas, 1732, Museo Nacional de Historia, Castillo de Chapultepec, Mexico. She is accompanied by the heraldic device, escudo, of the caciques (colonial word for native lords) of the town of Tacuba (formerly Aztec Tlacopan, a Triple Alliance city). This is a very rare portrait of an actual high status Indian woman of the 18th century. The long candle stick may indicate that she was painted at the time of entrance into a convent for high status Indian women. Except for her native garment, a very elaborate version of the Indian blouse or huipilli, and her tan face, she is represented just as a high status Spanish woman would be, indicating the high status and wealth of her family within metropolitan Mexican society (in contrast to the nobility of more isolated villages). Comparable male portraits of 18th century Indians are not known. 22. Oil Portrait of Native Woman, Anonymous artist, another wealthy Indian cacica. The label says: Sebastiana Ynes Josepha de San Agustin, legitimate daughter of Don Matias A. Martinez and Dona Thomasa de Dios y Mendiola, at the age of 16, 1757; oil on canvas, Museo Franz Mayer. She too is wearing a very elaborate huipil. 23. 18th Century Native Classes, Pedro Alonso O'Crowley, Idea compendiosa del Reyno de Nueva Espana, Ano 1774, published in 1772 and 1975, Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid. This is an unusual illustration for the times because it shows three levels of Indian classes with the marriage partners being of the same class and race. The Casta paintings below being more common in their depiction of natives intermarrying with other races. 24. 18th Century Native Classes, close-up of Indios Caciques (nobles). 25. Casta Painting, artist: Ignacio
Ma. Barreda y Ordonez, 1777, oil on canvas, 77 x 49 cm., Real
Academia Espanola de la Lengua, Madrid. 16 casta families showing
different mixes are included on one canvas; the 17th cartouche
is separated from the others and depicts pure, "barbarian"
Indians; below are the Paseos (walkways) at Chapultepec, Jamaica,
and Iztacalco, around Mexico City. 26. Casta Painting, # 1 in series of 16 by Miguel Cabrera (Creole or mestizo, 1695-1768), 132.5 x 101 cm., 1763, oil on canvas. The caption says 1 "De Espanol y India, Mestiza." (Museo de America, Madrid). 27. Casta Painting, # 2 by Cabrera. "De Espanol y India, Mestiza." (Museo de America, Madrid) 28. Casta Painting, # 15 by Cabrera, Museo de America, Madrid. "De Mestizo y India, Coyote." (Collection of Elisabeth Waldon-Dentzel, Northridge, California). Here the Mestizo coupled with an Indian woman rather than a Spaniard is correlated with poverty as indicated by the ragged clothing. 29. Casta Painting, # 16 by Cabrera, Museo de America, Madrid. "Indios Gentiles." The last couple in the typical series consists of pure Indians, what were considered "barbarian" because they were not part of urban/settled society and unconverted to Christianity. The clothing is less authentic than in the previous pairs because the painter was not familiar with these groups. Comparison: Battle of Christian and Barbarian Natives, mural in Augustinian monastery of Acolman (Hidalgo), second half 16th century. In the earlier allegorical depiction, Christian Indians are juxtaposed with unconverted Indians too, but they are contrasted very differently.
30. Virgin of Guadalupe Miracle, artist: Baltasar Troncoso, after Jose de Ibarra, Virgin of Guadalupe Quelling the Plague of 1737 in Mexico City, 1743 copper engraving, published as frontispiece in Escudo de Armas, by Cayetano de Cabrera y Quintero, 1746. The illustration shows only Spaniards in Mexico City; this is thought to parallel the appropriation of the cult to the Virgin of Guadalupe by Spaniards and Creoles, from the natives who are traditionally credited with being involved with the early worship of the VG. 31. Virgin of Guadalupe, artist: Josefus de Ribera/Argomanix, Virgin of Guadalupe Venerated by Juan Diego and an (unconverted) Indian, 1778, oil on canvas, 65x 40 in., Museo de la Basilica de Guadalupe, Mexico City. Here the image of the VG is associated in an 18th century painting with a Christian Indian and an unconverted Indian. What is the meaning of this imagery? 32. Boturini Frontispiece, portrait of Don Lorenzo Boturini (Italian, 1702-55), and Italian collector and scholar of Aztec materials, artist: Mathias de Irala, engraving, 1746 (Collecion Biblioteca Boturini, Guadalupe). He holds image of the Virgin of Guadalupe and one of Gemelli Careri's diagrams of the pre-Conquest Aztec calendar. They are juxtaposed here because the calendar was considered proof that the Aztecs were rational enough to be converted to Christianity. The appearance of the VG to an Indian was another proof. 33. Aztec Calendar Stone, first drawing after its discovery in 1791, published by Antonio de Leon y Gama, Descripcion historica y cronologica de las dos piedras, 1792. The great Aztec monument was found at the very end of the colonial period. It was first displayed set vertically into the tower of the Cathedral in Mexico City. 200 years later it is still displayed vertically in the National Museum of Anthropology. Originally a sacrificial stone, it would have been set horizontally on a low platform. The modern, popular interpretation of the monument ,which never mentions its sacrificial function, emphasizes the calendrical symbols on it and the story of the five Suns myth, which, probably inadvertently, continues, through emphasis, the colonial connection of the Aztec calendar with Aztec rationally. This connection of ideas would be undercut by an acknowledgement that the monument is a sacrificial stone SET 9: PRE-COLUMBIAN CENTRAL ANDES, PART 1 1. Map locating Central Andean area in relation to Mesoamerica and showing routes of Spanish explorers, Cortes in Mexico and Pizarro in Peru 2. Map of South America showing linguistic areas. The area of urban cultures of the Andes are on the west coast and adjacent mountain highlands; the native languages are Quechua (the Inca language), its variant Quichua, and Aymara. 3. Map of Central Andes with ancient sites indicated: note from north to south: North Coast: Chan Chan, Moche (Cerro Blanco); North Highlands: Chavin de Huantar; South Coast: Paracas, Nazca; Central Highlands: Cuzco, Machu Picchu; South Highlands: Lake Titicaca, Tiahuanaco (Bolivia). 4. Diagram of topography of Central Andes: dry coastal deserts watered by rivers from the Andes; high valleys and plain (puno); eastern slopes and tropical forests of the Amazon basin. Pre-Chavin Cultures 5. Photo of textile from Huaca Prieta, north coast, Peru, Preceramic Period, 3000-2000 BC. These are among the earliest textiles in the New World. Weaving and other textile arts date early in South America and weaving was the most important art at the time of the Spanish Conquest. The motif is an eagle with a serpent curled up in its center. Animal imagery and metaphors were also important from the early times in South America. In the Andes, as in other parts of the world, animals images referred to their zones of origin (coast, highlands, or tropical lowlands), their use to man (fibers, food, sacrifice), whether they were domesticated or wild, and their qualities as models for or parallels to human behavior. 6. Black and white drawing of the same bird-serpent motif. 7. Drawing of Andean back-strap loom (no up-right loom in precolumbian times); drawing from Felipe Guaman Poma's Nueva Chronica y Buen Gobierno, a long illustrated treatise addressed to the Spanish King Philip III, and written ca. 1613-1615; it was an explanation of pre-Conquest Inca life and a complaint about the corruption of colonial government in the area. His illustration style is totally European; no figurative, narrative tradition exists from before the Spanish Conquest in the Andes. In contrast to Mexico, where there were painted books keeping records with pictures and brief hieroglyphic inscriptions, in Peru most art was composed of geometric abstractions and records were kept on knotted cords called quipus. 8. Overview drawing of site of Sechin Alto, north coast, Peru, Initial Period 2000-1000 BC. A number of large ceremonial sites like this were build in coastal valleys in early times. Typically they were composed mostly of adobes and mud, had huge pyramid platforms, flanking platforms, and courtyards, all aligned on a single axis often focussed on a particular mountain in the Andes. U-shaped platforms are common. These are the earliest monumental structures in the Andes. Chavin Culture, Early Horizon, 1000-200 BC. The main site of Chavin culture is Chavin de Huantar in the north highlands. Objects in the same style are found in other areas from the north to south coasts. 9. Reconstruction drawing of the main structures at Chavin de Huantar. The site appears to be a temple complex, with elaborately carved stone sculptures in a distinctive and easily recognizable style. The architecture is also of stone, and, in contrast to Mesoamerica, finely smoothed ashlar masonry. The shape of the structure itself, its U-form in the Old Temple part to the right, its axial alignment, flanking platforms, and sunken plazas come from earlier coastal sites, like Sechin Alto. Unlike Mesoamerican and coastal pyramids, this one was filled with galleries on several levels (floors). There is evidence in these of the incorporation of water channels. These would make the pyramid a water-filled mountain and also create noise as the water rushed through. The focus of the Old Temple on the right was the Great Image, an oracle still in place at the crossing of two galleries (forming an X marking the center of space). The focus of the New Temple, as least now since nothing remains on top of it or inside, is the Black and White Portal that marked its entrance, from which stairways led to the upper parts. Parallel axes were formed by plazas and flanking platforms in front of the entrances of both the Old and New Temples. 10. Drawing of the Great Image, also called the Lanzon because of its lance-like shape. This was the focus of the Old Temple. A hole to the floor above the image could have been used for an oracular voice, other sound effects, or the pouring of liquids on the image below. The huge head of the Image has fanged teeth and hair composed of snakes, probably a metaphor called a kenning, according to scholars. It is also possible that the being represented was thought of as having snakes for hair. 11. View of Black and White Portal, named for the darker and lighter stones used for the cylindrical columns flanking it. 12. Anthropomorphic Eagle on south column of Black and White Portal. The figure is decorated with serpent, mouthband, and eye "kennings," or elaborations standing for border areas and entensions. Some scholars believe that this figure is female because of the zipper-like treatment of the mouth that bisects the body (representing the vagina theoretically). The two bird figures on the portal are in very low relief, are extremely detailed, and are wrapped around the cylinders in such a way that they were not easily perceived. 13. Anthropomorphic Hawk on north column of Black and White Portal. Even though these are not naturalistically rendered animals, the band below the eye of this one indicates that a hawk is intended; both figures also have the distinctive beaks of eagles and hawks. All kennings on this are treated in the reverse of the other figure; e.g. all profile kennings are frontal and the reverse. This one is thought to be male because of the central tooth of the mouth that marks the lower border of the torso. 14. So-Called Smiling God. This plaque was found at the temple but not in its original location. It is a simplified image compared to the others seen at the site. Snake kennings are restricted to the hair area. The face has the smile and fangs of the Great Image and may be another version of that supernatural oracle figure. He holds sea shells acquired from great distances; the spondyllus in his left hand in particular was imported from the coast of Ecuador. 15. Tello Obelique, an upright stone that represents a caiman seen from two sides wrapped around its four surfaces. This animal is not anthropomorphized and is covered with "kennings" and also small humans, animals, and plants. It is probably an animal image of the fruitful earth. It is noteworthy that the caiman and other animals depicted in whole or in kennings at the site are from the tropical lowlands, far to the east of Chavin. The Chavin site combines motifs and architectural forms from both the distant coast to the west and the tropical forest to the east. It is believed to be the main site of a far-flung cult involving oracles in different locations. It is also seen as a cult relating ecological zones at great distances from each other. This was characteristic of Andean social and economic relations; there had to be mechanisms to unite areas in cooperation so that the products raised at different altitudes could be exchanged. The Chavin religion seems to have been based on the uniting of these zones spiritually as well as economically. 16. Textile fragment from south coast, Chavin style, painted, woven cotton. This fragment represents the Fanged God (Smiling God or Great Image) from Chavin, and it is part of what scholars think might have been a hanging from a coastal shrine with a local oracle. All images from this area are on cotton and all seem to represent what has been interpreted as a female image, perhaps an oracle seen as related by kinship to the one at Chavin (like a "sister" or "daughter"). Not associated with a structure in the area of discovery. Often represented on these south coast textiles are cotton plants, probably the local product that was exported to other parts of Peru. 17. Ceramic bottle from north coast, Chavin style, resin painted ceramic. This represents a feline head with a single serpent, like a kenning, on top. These Chavin style objects are typical of the north coast of Peru; it is unclear what their purpose was. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 18. Gold crown from north coast, Chavin style, hammering technique. The frontal figure on it is the same fanged being seen at Chavin and on the south coast. The gold crown was worn by a high status religious or political specialist. This and other Chavin style gold objects were found in graves in this area. The wide spread of Chavin imagery in different media particular to different areas seems to indicate local variations to use of the cult. Museum of the American Indian. 19. Gold jaguar ornament, L. 10.7. Chicago Art Institute. A naturalistic wholly animal version of Chavin imagery. Most interesting here is the use of a hammering technology to create plates that are combined to make a sculpture in the round. Most Peruvian metalwork is in hammering techniques rather than casting, because of the lack of bee's wax in the Andes. Paracas Culture, Early Horizon, south coast Peru. 20. Drawing of two types of Paracas burial caverns, of the type where Paracas style ceramics and textiles were found with bundled bodies. These were in a high-status cemetery in an area of the Paracas Peninsula for people from more distant areas. No surface architecture, nor cities have been found in the area. 21. Cross section drawing of Paracas burial bundle, with body seated in basket and covered with many layers of embroidered textiles. 22. Paracas ceramic burial mask, using the same resin-paint as contemporary Chavin style ceramic vessels on the north coast. 23. Painted cotton textile mask from mummy bundle. The supernatural figure represented is a grinning toothy with large eyes, streamers from his head, and many tumi knives for decapitation hanging from his body. The same figure is found woven or embroidered on textiles. Textile Museum. 24. Woven and embroidered textile mantle from a Paracas bundle. The wool that these were made from was brought from highland areas to the coast. Typically, the mantles have a central area of one color, and borders of another, with repeated figures allover made by embroidery, using many different colors of wool. The patterns of alternation of colors is unpredictable and very complex. Here the wavy lines formed by the birds' wings as well as the colors create movement. 25. Close-up of an embroidered figure on a Paracas mantle. This was one of many variably colored figures on a single mantle. The figure is an anthropomorph whose head is hidden by a pair of whales; their eyes form a simultaneous image by forming the eyes of the figure. The figure holds a decapitated head and a tumi knife. Paracas imagery combines water creatures and birds with human figures and sacrifice images. 26. Paracas mantle with grinning, falling or sinking figures with skeletal ribs and holding tumi knives (associated with decapitation; visible is the border and central color area. Nazca Culture, Early or First Intermediate Period, 200 BC-AD 600, South Coast, Peru 27. The so-called "Paracas" Textile, which is actually Nazca. It is made of cotton base fibers and dyed wool for decorative elements. The central section shows grinning heads, while the borders consist of 90 individual figures made in a 3-dimensional looping technique. There are plants, animals, and costumed people; decapitation and plant fertility are the main themes. 28. Close-up of looped border figure, with gold mouth mask representing feline whiskers. 29. Double spout and bridge ceramic vessel (this is the typical Nazca form, in contrast to the stirrup spout of the contemporary Moche Culture). The surface was painted with slip and burnished before firing, a technique that replaced the earlier resin painting technique. The figure on it has a face wearing sheet-gold cat whiskers (colored white here); he holds a decapitated head in his hand and his body is in the form of a killer whale. 30. A typical later style Nazca pot. The technique is the same, but the motifs have changed. Along the bottom is a series of human faces. The upper area is covered with heads connecting to each other by the tongue (a source of power presumably and emphasizing eating). The forms of the head are very like contemporary textile forms. 31. The Nazca plains near the ceremonial center of Cahuachi; visible are many lines on the surface (formed by removing stones and revealing the desert beneath); many of the lines radiate out from central points, some of which were raised mounds on which offerings were made to nearby mountains, as containers of water, etc. These were most likely used as ceremonial paths. 32. Rarer lines forming large figures on the Nazca plains and slopes of hills; monkeys, birds, killer whales, and other animals also seen in Nazca ceramics. SET 10: PRE-COLUMBIAN CENTRAL ANDES, PART 2 Middle Horizon, AD 600-1000,
Tiahuanaco and Huari cultures. 2. Northern and primary ceremonial zone of the site of Tihuanaco (in modern Bolivia), as recently mapped by Alan Kolata. The site is surrounded by a moat and may represent the sacred island on Lake Titicaca to the east. The Akapana is the primary pyramid facing an important mountain to the west. It is U-shaped, was faced with ashlar masonry, had a pool for water on top, and drains throughout through which water descended through the interior to the bottom (imitating a mountain in Andean conception as a mountain from which water flows). This central section probably was the site of residences of the highest status people at the site, and may have been the Hanan (upper) section in contrast to a similar arrangement of buildings to its southwest, which might have been Hurin. 3. Remains of fine ashlar masonry on the walls of the Akapana pyramid at Tiahuanaco. 4. The Ponce Monolith at Tiahuanaco. This is a colossal human form typical of those at the site. Its shapes are geometricized and covered with fine incised designs that represent textiles and the Tiahuanaco version of "kennings", visual metaphors made up of animal figures to represent tears, hair, etc. Important here is the carrying of a drinking vessel, something important throughout Central Andean prehistory, ceremonial drinking, here seen in state monuments. 5. Gateway of the Sun at Tiahuanaco. Important at Tiahuanaco are decorated and emphasized doorways. This is the best known; fine, low reliefs on its upper part represent a rayed "sun"? god and his profile attendants in the form of humans and birds. 6. Drawing of Gateway God, or sun god, with animal heads representing rays or hair, as in Chavin kennings. Animals descending from his eyes are tears. Animals featured are eagles, pumas, snakes. 7. Photo of winged human attendant of Gateway God; note kennings. 8. Drawing of anthropomorphic bird and winged human attendants. 9. Huari ceramic jar, effigy vessel of man wearing typical Huari style tapestry shirt, hat, and face paint. The jar is slipped and burnished. The shirt has two main tapestry bands with faces. 10. Huari shirt, textile, cotton warp covered by dyed wool weft. A tapestry is a weft-faced textile (meaning the weft completely covered the warp). The four vertical bands on the shirt feature a splitting and distortion of the figure of an attendant figure. Here the vertical sections feature the head and tail of the figure. Complex and unpredictable repetitions of color areas create further visual complexities. 11. Diagram of bird attendant from the Gateway of the Sun at Tiahuanaco, as translated onto two types of Huari shirt, one featuring horizontal expansion of the figures, the other contraction. 12. Diagram of puma attendant (not from Gateway, but similar in style), facing in different directions, and treated with combinations of compression and expansion. 13. Close-up of vertical tapestry band from a shirt with the puma attendant figure (more accurately a whole figure below a half figure). Note the incredible fineness of the threads and the effects of alternating light and dark colors of different hues. 14. Close-up of band from the "Lima Tapestry", a famous example of an attendant figure so distorted that it is unrecognizably abstracted. 15. Middle Horizon example of a quipu, a record keeping device used in the Andes and consisting of knotted cords of different colors suspended from a single strand.
Moche or Mochica Culture, North Coast of Peru, kingdom extending across several valleys, but with a capital at Moche, most recently called Cerro Blanco. Early Intermediate Period, 200 BC-AD 600. As a coastal culture the architecture is primarily pyramidal platforms of adobe bricks; numerous small images exist on ceramics and in metalwork, both of which are found in burials in pyramids. 16. Huaca del Sol, or Temple of the Sun, at Moche/Cerro Blanco. This is one of the largest structures in South America. It was made of multiple columns of adobe bricks, the marks on which indicate that it was built by groups of workers. It is believed that these groups of laborers were brought in from different parts of the Moche polity, and that their labor was a type of tribute. This type of tribute labor in the Andes is referred to by the later Inca word mita labor. Recent archaeology has revealed tombs and murals at this site. 17. Plan of the Huaca del Sol, showing its multiple platforms and ramp which make it distinctive from Mesoamerican pyramids in which the different platforms are stacked on top of each other and have a single stairway to the top. This is not true of many pyramids in South America. 18. National Geographic Magazine reconstruction of the burial of an important Moche lord/ruler at Sipan. He is buried with other people, some sacrificial victims, others his wives. He was buried with huge amounts of gold and silver implements and clothing. These represent costumes of mythical characters; so apparently important Moche lords went to the other world as mythical characters. 19. Moche stirrup-spout vessel. This is a late one; it is a white or buff base painted all over with a complex scene (in this case a burial) in red paint. 20. Roll-out drawing of a red-on-white painted scene on a stirrup spout vessel. This is called the Presentation Theme or Scene, in which a large costumed figure is presented with a vessel by a bird-headed man; a figure dressed as a "jester" holds another vessel behind him. Below the serpent that forms a ground line for the upper scene are an empty litter-seat and two figures drawing blood from captured enemies. 21. Moche effigy jar in the form of an anthropomorphic deer, one of many anthropomorphized animals that appear in Moche mythical scenes. This one has a rope around its neck, indicating it is a prisoner of war. Its sex is also emphasized. Museo Raphael Larco Herrera, Lima. 22. Stirrup spout effigy vessel in the form of a feline-toothed human head, probably the Moche chief deity who is represented in a number of narrative scenes on other vessels. Typical Moche red and white coloration. 23. Stirrup spout effigy vessel in the form of a human portrait. This is a late style vessel in that it is a more natural and individualized portrayal of a man. This type of vessel was made in multiples with molds, and would be found in different burials, apparently representing a lord important to the inhabitant of a tomb. Even the typical red and white coloration has been modified to appear more natural. H. 25.6 cm. Chicago Art Institute. 24. Stirrup Spout effigy vessel representing a mountain sacrifice scene. Here the narrative is represented through modeled and painted forms. The five mountains are in the form of a hand. Sacrificial victims fall from the peaks. An image of the fanged, principle god is seen seated on a throne, as if a historic person were dressed as the god, or an image of the god was present. H. 17.9 cm. Berlin, Museum fur Volkerkunde. 25. Moche ear ornaments (the tube went through the ear and the frontal part was visible), gold with turquoise and other stones, Diameter 4", Metropolitan Museum of Art. Represented is a common theme in Moche art, a anthropomorphic bird running and carrying a bag, possibly containing beans with messages on them. Typical of Moche style is the way the running figure is represented vigorously with legs separated. Chimu Culture, Late Intermediate (or Second Intermediate), AD 1000-1476, North Coast of Peru, covering the former Moche area. 26. Chimu capital city of Chanchan, Moche Valley but closer to the ocean than Cerro Blanco. This city featured 10 large walled compounds (called Ciudadelas) made of adobes and earth, in which were found large burial pyramids accompanied by the storage areas for received tribute to be placed in the pyramid with the dead and kitchen areas for the feeding of the workers. All 10 pyramids were thoroughly looted. Surrounding them were high status residences and the lesser structures of workers and artisans in different materials who lived in close proximity to each other. 27. Overview of some of the great compounds. 28. Tumi knife (for sacrificial decapitation). This is from the Chimu period area of Sican, where much metalwork was found in burials. It is in a mostly hammered technique and represents what is called the Lord of Sican as an image above the knife blade. This lord is presented frontally and may be the same deity as the Moche Fanged God. 29. Wooden plate inlaid with shell and stone, to represent, in the center (up-side-down in slide) a raft with room on it and two divers below, diving for red Spondyllus shells (which had to have been done in Ecuador). Around the center scene are images of anthropomorphic waves and fruitful trees. Ground spondyllus shells were used to cover the ground before a great Chimu lord. 30. Example of Chimu shirt, cotton gauze, Pelican pattern. 59 x 116 cm., Textile Museum, Washington DC. 31. Chimu shirt, combining cotton with parrot feathers and silver plaques. 33 x 65.5 cm. Private Collection. Chimu textiles are probably from burials where they were stored next to the deceased not worn by him. They are characterized by mixtures of materials and techniques, and were probably derived from another culture, the Chancay culture, to the south Set 11 (2) CITY AND EMPIRE, CONTINUED 1. Another map of Cuzco, with
different buildings labeled. SET 12: PRE-CONQUEST INCA ART 1. Page from Guaman Poma's Nueva
Chronica with representation of Inca ruler in all-over Tocapu
uncu. The uncu is the tunic, and tocapu is the geometric designs
all over it. Only the Inca ruler could wear the all-over tocapu,
and its designs probably incorporated everything in the empire,
all ranks. SET 14: COLONIAL NATIVE ANDEAN ART 1. Wool tapestry uncu, wood weft, cotton warp, late 16th century. The Inca nobility continued to wear traditional Andean uncus in the colonial period. Early colonial versions like this one can be contrasted with the later versions seen in the Corpus Christi paintings from Santa Ana parish church (there are no physical examples of the later type). The preconquest idea of tocapu is preserved at the waistband and stepped neck line, but other motifs are represented mimetically: the two (royal) pumas at the neckline; 10 decapitated head in the upper part, and 12 Inca crowns with red fringe in the lower part. Colonial tocapu is different from pre-conquest tocapu and arranged differently too. 2. Wool tapestry uncu with embroidered
rather than woven decoration, 17h century (Brooklyn Museum).
Interesting on this side is the band of figures at the bottom;
this is the same type of narrative, figurative imagery featuring
Inca royalty seen in colonial times also on painted keros, drinking
vessels. SET 15: EUROPEAN-STYLE ANDEAN OIL PAINTINGS 1. Guaman Poma illustration of
Inca ruler with huacas, sacred places represented figuratively,
for a colonial and European audience (they actually could represent
ancestors, but not figuratively). These were the sacred places
and rocks that the Spanish administrators and churchmen considered
the object of idolatry and which they attempted to replace with
Christian holy figures. In front of the cart walks the local native administrator, called a curaca, who wears a colonial version of an Inca uncu and crown (with red fringe). The shirt has obvious European derived lace on the sleeves and European derived images of the sun on the front and lion heads on the shoulders (to picture the association of the Inca with the puma). The curaca in each Indian parish canvas (there are 6 of them) claimed descent from an Inca ruler of the precolumbian past; they were also probably the patrons of the individual canvases. Also interesting is this series of paintings is the division of the image into upper class Andeans and Spaniards in the background (windows and balconies), likewise important Andeans and Spaniards in the middleground procession, and lower class citizens (Indians and Africans) in the foreground. In other paintings, not this one, some of these foreground figures misbehave like children. In this paintings a mischievous Andean child hitches a ride on the back of the cart and aims a pea shooter at someone in the audience; he is meant to represent the lower class, "child-like" Andeans. These paintings once hang in the parish church of Santa Ana, a barrio of Cuzco inhabited by among others well-known Canari (from Ecuador) and Chachapoya (local central Andean) military guards. These two groups were not of Inca descent but rather had been moved to the Cuzco area upon the conquest by the Inca Empire of their areas of origin before the arrival of the Spanish (this type of imperioal colony was called mitmaq in the Inca language). Upon Spanish arrival, these non-Inca groups took the side of the Spanish against the Inca, and bad feelings from these events continued to divide the native Andean groups in the colonial period. This was seen especially in imagery and actual fights at public ceremonies like Corpus Christi. 6. Close-up of child on back
of cart. This type of painting of individual Inca portraits was a totally colonial invention. There exist no ruler portraits in preconquest Peru. Rather they come from the Spanish tradition of portraying the kings of the different Spanish kingdoms (e.g. Navarra, Aragon, Asturias, etc) which were displayed in groups in the Spanish royal palace in Madrid. Most of these, too, would have been imaginary portraits, as the actual appearance of the kings was unknown. Inca ruler portraits are also seen in separate bust-length images, again oil on canvas. The earliest recorded portraits of Inca kings are mentioned in the late 16th century. The earliest remaining examples are the full-length ones in Guaman Poma (1613-15) and bust-length portraits like these in Francisco Herrera's frontispiece to the Decada Quinta section of the Historia General de los hechos de los Castellanos,Madrid, 1615. Different versions were used by both natives and Spaniards for various political purposes; in the case of natives, Inca portraits and colonial portraits were used even as legal documents. This one is based on a print by a Spaniard in Lima, Alonso de la Cueva, of 1724-28. The seamless transfer from Inca to Spanish rulers depicted would have supported both Spanish and noble Inca claims. Here in Lima, the viceregal capital, they were probably Spanish claims. 11. Marriage of the Nusta (Inca Princess) Beatriz to Martin Garcia de Loyola. In La Compania, the Jesuit church in Cuzco, late 17th century. This is a totally invented scene picturing the uniting of two descendants of Jesuit saints with an Inca princess and her daughter. Perhaps this is a rival view to the picture above picturing Spanish royal family as the inheritors of the Inca "throne." The Jesuits were not subject to the Spanish but rather to the Pope in Rome, and this was later one of the causes of the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Spanish world (by the Bourbons in 1767). In the painting the couple on the left is Martin Garcia de Loyola, grasping the wrist of the Inca princess, who is dressed entirely in traditional Inca royal garb. Behind them are her ancestors, Inca royalty, in front of the Jesuit Church in Cuzco. In the center of the canvas are the founding Jesuit saints, Ignacio de Loyola and Francisco de Borja. To the right is Martin's and Beatriz's daughter with her husband, a descendant of St. F. Borja. The scene behind them is their marriage in Europe. The painting merges space and time to depict the Jesuit descendants as the recipients of Inca royal heritage. 12. Unknown artist, Unknown Inca
Nusta, oil on canvas, about 1690. This type of portrait is a
close counter part of a Spanish royal portrait, but with Inca
royal traits emphasized. The princess touches a colonial version
of the Inca royal crown (in a European portrait, a man might
have a hat on the table). In the upper left is her family's
escudo/coat of arms, granted by Spanish royal decree. She wear's
the traditional Inca dress and mantle decorated with bands of
tocapu. This is a European style portrait
of a native official, who served between Spanish administrators
and native population. Again there is a combination of Spanish
and Inca high status symbols, e.g. The Spanish escudo and the
Inca crown. A text in a cartouche beside him gives the facts
of his Inca descent and service to the Spanish. Colonial native
men dressed more like Spanish men on civil occasions (except
when dressed as their Inca ancestors; see Corpus Christi painting
above). Here the inscription indicates that the donors are the pictured figures, the chieftain Mariano Pina and his wife and sons. The men are dressed as Chuncos (also called Antis because they were from the Antisuyo quarter of the former Inca empire). These represented barbarians in contrast to the Inca, in both preconquest and colonial times. 15. Dancer and drummer costumed,
from the town of Tinguipaya, for the Corpus Christi festival
in La Plata, late 18th century. |