History of Art 1B Art at the
Crossroads of World Culture 600
to 1700
Ancient Mexican Art
Context
• Complex society
• 14th to the 16th centuries
• Nomadic people who settled on islands in Lake Texaco
• Empire defeated in 1521 by the Spanish
• Ending the last great native civilisation in Mesoamerica
• Several social classes nobles, commoners, serfs, and slaves
• Aztecs had rich religious traditions
• Gods
• Tonatiuh: the sun god
• Huitzilopochtli: the god of war and the sun
• Tlahuizcalpantechihtli: the god of dawn (Venus)
• Xiuhtecuhtli: the god of fire and time
• Quetzalcoatl: The Toltec god who played an important role in the Aztec faith
• Tlaloc: the rain god
• Ceremonies
• Monthly festivities involved offerings to the gods
• Public rituals involved music, dancing, and human sacrifice
• Private worship involved altars and sculptures in homes
• Human sacrifice
• Performed to please the gods and keep the cycle of life and death balances
• Victims were often slaves or prisoners of war
• Victims were dressed up in the clothes of a god and worshipped as the god
incarnate
• The victim’s heart was cut out and offered to the gods
• Calendar
• Based on a solar cycle of 365 days and a ritual cycle of 260 days
• The Aztecs were skilled builders and created impressive architecture
• The Aztecs domesticated crops such as corn, beans, squares, chilli peppers, and cotton
• The Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés led an invasion of the Aztecs in 1519
• The Spanish and their natives allies besieged the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, from May
to August 1521
• The Aztecs surrendered on August 13, 1521
• Cortés built Mexico City on the ruins of Tenochtitlan
• The Aztecs were skilled warriors who conquered neighbouring civilisations in Mexico
• The Aztecs captured territory for tribute and enemies for human sacrifice
• “Discovery” of the Americas changed visions and understanding of the world
• Aztec
• People of Aztlan (Aztecs’ mythical homeland)
,• Mexica
• What the Aztecs referred to themselves as
• Nahuatl
• The language that the Aztecs spoke
• Dominant political power in Mexico at the time of contact with Europe
• Rules of a vast empire extending throughout the region
• Two main purposes of Aztec art; Honour and Praise their Gods and to be worn by higher
ranking Aztecs
Worlds Collide: Aztec Art
• Eve of European “discovery” of the Americas
• Complicated history
• Identity politics
• Aztec cities were more wealthy, stronger, and larger than European cities
• Aztec leaders wanted luxury goods as tribute/tax
• Personal want or for sacrifice?
• Feathers were very precious and reserved for leaders and/or most powerful
• Aztecs were very skilled with metalwork
• Gold was very valuable
• Labrets were mostly for ceremonial use
• Believed that soul resided in ones breath and decorating openings (mouth, nostrils,
ears) signalled the preciousness and vitality of a persons soul
• Jade was most valuable material
• More valuable than gold
• Conch/Spondylus shells were extremely valuable in the Aztec empire
• Funerary masks often made from Jade and/or other valuable materials
• Fixed to the deceased or placed with belongings for burial
• Artworks, objects, material is what strengthen the economy
• Cactus growing from stone with eagle perched on top
• Aztec omen which showed them where to settle
• Cactus was integral to Aztec beliefs
• Spanish built very large churches on top of or alongside temple ruins after colonisation
• Templa Mayor
• Skull racks used to induce fear and promote military
• 7 phases of Templa Mayor
• Russian nesting doll effect
• Each phase larger than the previous
• Phases coincided with new leadership
• Twin temples used to worship two main gods
• Tlaloc
• God of water, rain, and agricultural fertility
• Huitzilopochtli
• God of sun, fire, war, and sacrifice
• Different communities held different gods in different levels of esteem
• Militaristic society
• Strong in battle
• Symbols of sacrifice, human hearts, open hands
• The Birth of Huitzilopochtli
• Mother: Coatlicue (serpent skirt)
• Sister: Coyolxauqui
, • Coatepec - serpent mountain
• Where he was born and battled his sister and other siblings
• Sculpture of standard bearers (flag bearers) believed to represent innumerable
siblings of Huitzilopochtli
• Temple devoted to depicting history of beliefs
• Temples typically housed “god-images”
• Only made visible on certain days
• Viewed by most powerful in the temple
• Layered and adorned with symbolic items
• Believed that when gods were viewed and their identity was known then they were
vulnerable
• Obsidian was associated with Aztecs’ most powerful diety, Tezcatlipoca, AKA the
smoking mirror
• Largest scale of human sacrifice practiced and done on large circular stones
• Human sacrifice done by the government
• Imagery of human sacrifice in “city” centres can be viewed as political propaganda
• Believed that death brings new life
• Death was not to be lamented but celebrated
• Believed that the sun went to war each night with the forces of darkness only to remerge
victorious the next day
• Similar ideas permeated understandings of phenomena like childbirth, cycles of
agriculture, fertility, etc.
• The Aztec “calendar” or solar stone
• Representation of Aztec belief of cyclical nature
• Ceremonial rather than practical
• Aztec century was every 52 years
• Centre of the stone is a god
• Believed to be Tonaiuh, the sun god
• Knife for tongue
• Hold a human heart in each of the clawed hands
• Four squares surrounding central face
• Represent a previous era
• Four Jaguar
• Four Wind
• Four Rain
• Four Water
• Believed that when each era ended the world was destroyed and recreated
• Believed that they were living in the age of the 5th sun
• Would end due to their faults
• First ring
• 20 symbols representing the days of the Aztec month
• Each day was associated with a name and compass direction
• Each month was associated with particular religious and agricultural festivals
• Triangular motifs represent solar rays or possibly cardinal points
• Third ring
• Occupied almost entirely by two fire serpents, Xuihcoatl
• Segmented bodies covered in flames
• Open mouths hold human heads
• Top of the stone s the date “13 reed”
• Centre of the stone bears the name Motecuhzoma II
• Possibly ruler that commissioned the stone
, • Calendrical symbol for movement or earthquake was the symbol for the 5th sun and
believed to be the reason for their fall
• Would have laid flat
• Once painted blue, green, red, and yellow
• Believed to be sacrificial slab
• Spanish violently destroyed many religious structures and imagery
• Art warship
• Spanish denounced indigenous religion as idolatry
• Ambiguity regarding nature of sacred images helps allow indigenous visual practices to
endure altered form as Christianity is adopted in Mexico
Altera Roma: Teotihuacan
• Aztecs were aware of ancient antiquities
• Civilisations before them
• Keep in mind how artworks were used to portray power and power relations
• Analogy of Aztec Empire being the ”Rome” of the “new world”/Mesoamerica
• Teotihuacan was the City of the Gods
• Lasted from 1CE to 600CE
• Every 20 days Moctezuma would send priests to Teotihuacan to make offerings
• One of many established civilisations before Aztec Empire
• Around 100 BCE there was a volcanic eruption in basin of Mexico which caused a mass
migration forcing many to go to Teotihuacan
• How it was established
• Very orderly civic plan
• Co-ordination of building layouts
• Multi-family apartment compounds
• Varied in size
• Could house up to 60 people
• Extended kin in apartment compounds
• Unusual for latin Americans
• Was not popular for them to live in apartment compounds
• Central patios usually reserved for spiritual use
• Shrines
• Stone sculpture braziers were very common
• For “Old God of Fire”
• Receptacle used for burning incense
• Mural paintings common in apartment compounds
• Humanoid figures rather cartoonish in style
• Enigmatic
• Avenue of the dead was the central axis
• Lineage temples for offerings to the gods
• Talud-Tablero style architecture
• Very large and very influential city
• Green stone masks
• Not actually worn by people
• Believe that eyes are recessed as they would have been filled with shell (inset)
• Believed to be funerary items
• Monumental pyramids
• Pyramid of the Sun
• Reconstructed by archeologists
• Single phase
Crossroads of World Culture 600
to 1700
Ancient Mexican Art
Context
• Complex society
• 14th to the 16th centuries
• Nomadic people who settled on islands in Lake Texaco
• Empire defeated in 1521 by the Spanish
• Ending the last great native civilisation in Mesoamerica
• Several social classes nobles, commoners, serfs, and slaves
• Aztecs had rich religious traditions
• Gods
• Tonatiuh: the sun god
• Huitzilopochtli: the god of war and the sun
• Tlahuizcalpantechihtli: the god of dawn (Venus)
• Xiuhtecuhtli: the god of fire and time
• Quetzalcoatl: The Toltec god who played an important role in the Aztec faith
• Tlaloc: the rain god
• Ceremonies
• Monthly festivities involved offerings to the gods
• Public rituals involved music, dancing, and human sacrifice
• Private worship involved altars and sculptures in homes
• Human sacrifice
• Performed to please the gods and keep the cycle of life and death balances
• Victims were often slaves or prisoners of war
• Victims were dressed up in the clothes of a god and worshipped as the god
incarnate
• The victim’s heart was cut out and offered to the gods
• Calendar
• Based on a solar cycle of 365 days and a ritual cycle of 260 days
• The Aztecs were skilled builders and created impressive architecture
• The Aztecs domesticated crops such as corn, beans, squares, chilli peppers, and cotton
• The Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés led an invasion of the Aztecs in 1519
• The Spanish and their natives allies besieged the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, from May
to August 1521
• The Aztecs surrendered on August 13, 1521
• Cortés built Mexico City on the ruins of Tenochtitlan
• The Aztecs were skilled warriors who conquered neighbouring civilisations in Mexico
• The Aztecs captured territory for tribute and enemies for human sacrifice
• “Discovery” of the Americas changed visions and understanding of the world
• Aztec
• People of Aztlan (Aztecs’ mythical homeland)
,• Mexica
• What the Aztecs referred to themselves as
• Nahuatl
• The language that the Aztecs spoke
• Dominant political power in Mexico at the time of contact with Europe
• Rules of a vast empire extending throughout the region
• Two main purposes of Aztec art; Honour and Praise their Gods and to be worn by higher
ranking Aztecs
Worlds Collide: Aztec Art
• Eve of European “discovery” of the Americas
• Complicated history
• Identity politics
• Aztec cities were more wealthy, stronger, and larger than European cities
• Aztec leaders wanted luxury goods as tribute/tax
• Personal want or for sacrifice?
• Feathers were very precious and reserved for leaders and/or most powerful
• Aztecs were very skilled with metalwork
• Gold was very valuable
• Labrets were mostly for ceremonial use
• Believed that soul resided in ones breath and decorating openings (mouth, nostrils,
ears) signalled the preciousness and vitality of a persons soul
• Jade was most valuable material
• More valuable than gold
• Conch/Spondylus shells were extremely valuable in the Aztec empire
• Funerary masks often made from Jade and/or other valuable materials
• Fixed to the deceased or placed with belongings for burial
• Artworks, objects, material is what strengthen the economy
• Cactus growing from stone with eagle perched on top
• Aztec omen which showed them where to settle
• Cactus was integral to Aztec beliefs
• Spanish built very large churches on top of or alongside temple ruins after colonisation
• Templa Mayor
• Skull racks used to induce fear and promote military
• 7 phases of Templa Mayor
• Russian nesting doll effect
• Each phase larger than the previous
• Phases coincided with new leadership
• Twin temples used to worship two main gods
• Tlaloc
• God of water, rain, and agricultural fertility
• Huitzilopochtli
• God of sun, fire, war, and sacrifice
• Different communities held different gods in different levels of esteem
• Militaristic society
• Strong in battle
• Symbols of sacrifice, human hearts, open hands
• The Birth of Huitzilopochtli
• Mother: Coatlicue (serpent skirt)
• Sister: Coyolxauqui
, • Coatepec - serpent mountain
• Where he was born and battled his sister and other siblings
• Sculpture of standard bearers (flag bearers) believed to represent innumerable
siblings of Huitzilopochtli
• Temple devoted to depicting history of beliefs
• Temples typically housed “god-images”
• Only made visible on certain days
• Viewed by most powerful in the temple
• Layered and adorned with symbolic items
• Believed that when gods were viewed and their identity was known then they were
vulnerable
• Obsidian was associated with Aztecs’ most powerful diety, Tezcatlipoca, AKA the
smoking mirror
• Largest scale of human sacrifice practiced and done on large circular stones
• Human sacrifice done by the government
• Imagery of human sacrifice in “city” centres can be viewed as political propaganda
• Believed that death brings new life
• Death was not to be lamented but celebrated
• Believed that the sun went to war each night with the forces of darkness only to remerge
victorious the next day
• Similar ideas permeated understandings of phenomena like childbirth, cycles of
agriculture, fertility, etc.
• The Aztec “calendar” or solar stone
• Representation of Aztec belief of cyclical nature
• Ceremonial rather than practical
• Aztec century was every 52 years
• Centre of the stone is a god
• Believed to be Tonaiuh, the sun god
• Knife for tongue
• Hold a human heart in each of the clawed hands
• Four squares surrounding central face
• Represent a previous era
• Four Jaguar
• Four Wind
• Four Rain
• Four Water
• Believed that when each era ended the world was destroyed and recreated
• Believed that they were living in the age of the 5th sun
• Would end due to their faults
• First ring
• 20 symbols representing the days of the Aztec month
• Each day was associated with a name and compass direction
• Each month was associated with particular religious and agricultural festivals
• Triangular motifs represent solar rays or possibly cardinal points
• Third ring
• Occupied almost entirely by two fire serpents, Xuihcoatl
• Segmented bodies covered in flames
• Open mouths hold human heads
• Top of the stone s the date “13 reed”
• Centre of the stone bears the name Motecuhzoma II
• Possibly ruler that commissioned the stone
, • Calendrical symbol for movement or earthquake was the symbol for the 5th sun and
believed to be the reason for their fall
• Would have laid flat
• Once painted blue, green, red, and yellow
• Believed to be sacrificial slab
• Spanish violently destroyed many religious structures and imagery
• Art warship
• Spanish denounced indigenous religion as idolatry
• Ambiguity regarding nature of sacred images helps allow indigenous visual practices to
endure altered form as Christianity is adopted in Mexico
Altera Roma: Teotihuacan
• Aztecs were aware of ancient antiquities
• Civilisations before them
• Keep in mind how artworks were used to portray power and power relations
• Analogy of Aztec Empire being the ”Rome” of the “new world”/Mesoamerica
• Teotihuacan was the City of the Gods
• Lasted from 1CE to 600CE
• Every 20 days Moctezuma would send priests to Teotihuacan to make offerings
• One of many established civilisations before Aztec Empire
• Around 100 BCE there was a volcanic eruption in basin of Mexico which caused a mass
migration forcing many to go to Teotihuacan
• How it was established
• Very orderly civic plan
• Co-ordination of building layouts
• Multi-family apartment compounds
• Varied in size
• Could house up to 60 people
• Extended kin in apartment compounds
• Unusual for latin Americans
• Was not popular for them to live in apartment compounds
• Central patios usually reserved for spiritual use
• Shrines
• Stone sculpture braziers were very common
• For “Old God of Fire”
• Receptacle used for burning incense
• Mural paintings common in apartment compounds
• Humanoid figures rather cartoonish in style
• Enigmatic
• Avenue of the dead was the central axis
• Lineage temples for offerings to the gods
• Talud-Tablero style architecture
• Very large and very influential city
• Green stone masks
• Not actually worn by people
• Believe that eyes are recessed as they would have been filled with shell (inset)
• Believed to be funerary items
• Monumental pyramids
• Pyramid of the Sun
• Reconstructed by archeologists
• Single phase
