Pre-Columbian Art 5

Mixtec, and Aztec Cultures after 1300

Credit to Gardner’s Art Through The Ages 12th Ed.

Spanish Conquest: Overview

• After Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the “New World” in 1492, the Spanish monarchs funded more expeditions to explore the coasts of North and South America

• Brief stops on the coast of Yucatán, Mexico yielded a small but still impressive amount of gold and precious artifacts

Spanish Conquest: Overview

• This prompted the Spanish governor of Cuba to fund another expedition, this one headed by Hernán Cortés

• These were the first Spanish explorers to make contact with the great Aztec emperor Moctezuma

• In only 2 years, Cortés was able to overthrow the Aztec Empire

• His victory in 1521 led to: – More conquistadors– Missionaries seeking to convert these civilizations to Christianity– Many new diseases to which the indigenous populations had no

immunity

Spanish Conquest: Overview

• This clash of cultures between the Spanish and the indigenous cultures of the Americas led to 100 years of turmoil and a huge population decline throughout the new Spanish domains

Review of the Fall of Mesoamerican Cultures

• After the fall of Teotihuacán, and the abandonment of the southern Maya sites around 900, new cities emerged elsewhere, but were short-lived:– Chichén Itzá (Maya) in the north Yucatán– Tula (Toltec) near Mexico City

Mixteca-Puebla Culture

• Mixteca-Puebla:– The Mixtecs succeeded the Zapotecs at Monte

Albán in southern Mexico after 700, and connected politically with Oaxaca by dynastic intermarriage and war

– Treasures found in Mixtec tombs at Monte Albán suggest:• The wealth of the culture• The artistic achievement of the culture

Puebla, Oaxaca, Monte Albán

Mixteca-Puebla Culture

• Mixteca-Puebla Artistic technique and media:– Skilled goldsmiths– Mosaics– Illustrated books (Codices) – Turquoise • Obtained from as far away as present-day New Mexico

Illustrated Books (Maya)• Maya Illustrated Books:

– Highly prized in Mesoamerica– Books were precious vehicles for recording history , rituals,

astronomy, calendar calculations, maps, and trade/tribute accounts

– Hieroglyphic columns read from left to right, top to bottom– Most books painted before and immediately after the Spanish

conquest deal with astronomy, calendars, divination, and ritual, and are still not well understood.

– Not many (only 4 Maya books) survive, because when conquistadors found them, they thought they contained evil and burned them

Illustrated Books (Mixteca-Puebla)

• Mixteca-Puebla Illustrated Books:– 14 non-Maya books survived, 11 of which are from

the Mixtec Oaxaca or from the Puebla region– Style is called “Mixteca Puebla”• Painted on long sheets of bark paper or deerskin, first

coated with fine white lime plaster and then folded into accordion-like pleats• Wooden covers protected the books, called codices

(singular: codex)• 7 Mixtec codices that survived are primarily genealogical

and historical in content

Illustrated Books (Mixteca-Puebla)• Mixteca-Puebla Illustrated Books:– The Borgia Codex:

• From central highland Mexico (possibly Puebla)• Ritual content• Palette: mostly red, yellow, and black (outlines)• 2 gods gesturing back to back

– God of life: Quetzalcoatl» Black» Masked human instead of a feathered serpent

– God of death: Mictlantecuhtli» White

• Below the gods is an inverted skull with a double keyboard of teeth: a symbol of the Underworld (Mictlan) which was entered through the mouth of a great earth monster

Illustrated Books (Mixteca-Puebla)

• Mixteca-Puebla, Borgia Codex:– Suggests the inevitable cycle of life and death, an

important theme in Mesoamerican art– Symbols of the thirteen 20-day divisions of the

260-day Mesoamerican ritual calendar are in the margins• The origins of this calendar, used even today in remote

parts of Mexico and Central America, are unknown

Mictlantecuhtli and Quetzalcoatl, illuminated page from the Borgia Codex, from Puebla/Tlaxcala (?), Mexico, 1400-1500,

Mineral and vegetable pigments on deerskin, 10”x10”

Calendar symbols (20-day divisions Of the 260-day calendar)

God of life: Quetzalcoatl

God of death: Mictlantecuhtli

The Underworld (Mictlan) ,the mouth of a great earth monster

Aztec

• Aztec:– The Toltec civilization and capital at Tula was

destroyed around 1200– Led to 100 years of anarchy in the Valley of Mexico– Northern invaders (not Spanish) established

warring city-states in the valley, contributing to the destruction• The last and greatest of these invaders were the Aztecs

Aztec

• Aztec:– Transformed themselves into an empire within a few

generations– Acquired some Toltec culture in the process– Called themselves the “Mexica”– Settled on an island in Lake Texcoco (Lake of the Moon) after

a prophecy that they would build a city where they saw an eagle perched on a cactus with a serpent in its mouth• This settlement grew into the great city of Tenochtitlán• Supposedly the prophecy of where to settle came from

Huitzilopochtli, the hummingbird god of war

Aztec

• This is the symbol on the official Mexican flag today!

Tenochtitlán, Lake Texcoco

Aztec• Aztec:

– Recognized as fierce in war and cruel in peace– People had to submit to Aztec military AND had to provide

victims to be sacrificed, mainly to Huitzilopochtli, the hummingbird god of war, as well as other gods.

– Bloodletting and human sacrifice were intended to please the gods and to keep balance and order in the universe

– Aztecs practiced human sacrifice on a greater scale than any others, even waging special battles called the “flowery wars” just to get captives for future sacrifice

– This was why Cortés was easily able to create alliances with Aztec CAPTIVES, who helped to overthrow the empire

Aztec• Aztec, Tenochtitlán:– Directly in the center of modern day Mexico City– Had population of over 100,000

» Total population of Aztec-dominated Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest was about 11 million!

– Plaza contained many temples to deities, a ball court, a skull rack to exhibit the heads of victims killed in sacrificial rites, a school for noble children, and a marketplace» Díaz del Castillo recorded that soldiers who accompanied

him had traveled all over the world, and had never seen a marketplace so large, crowded, and well regulated and arranged!

Aztec

• Aztec, Tenochtitlán:– Planned on a grid like Teotihuacán (which became

a pilgrimage site for the Aztecs)– Communication and transport was often

conducted via waterways, (like Venice, Italy)

Tenochtitlán, The Great Temple– Principal building: The Great Temple

» Temple-pyramid honoring the Aztec god Huitzilopochtli and the local rain god Tlaloc

» Example of “Superimposition”, a common trait in Mesoamerican architecture• Superimposition: incorporating a previous building into a new

building, or nesting a series of buildings inside each other» Has 7 shells» Commemorated Huitzilopochtli’s victory over his sister and 400

brothers, who had plotted to kill their mother, Coatlicue (She of the Serpent Skirt)• This myth signifies the birth of the sun at dawn (Huitzilopochtli),

and the sun’s battle with the forces of darkness, the stars (his brothers) and the moon (Coyolxauhqui: “She of the Golden Bells”)

Tenochtitlán, The Great Temple: “Superimposition”/Shells

Tenochtitlán, The Great Temple (Reconstruction)

The Great Temple

Tenochtitlán, The Great Temple (Reconstruction)

Tenochtitlán, Reconstruction

Aztec

• Aztec, Tenochtitlán:– A massive sculpture of Coatlicue (She of the

Serpent Skirt) was discovered in 1790 near Mexico City’s cathedral

– Scholars believe it was one of a group set up at The Great Temple

– Main forms are carved in high relief, details in low relief

Coatlicue (She of the Serpent Skirt), Aztec, from Tenochtitlán, Mexico City, 1487-1520, Andesite, 11’6” tall

• From the beheaded goddess’s neck, two snakes writhe, their head meet to form a tusked mask

• Wears a necklace of severed human hands and hearts, the pendant is a skull

• Entwined snakes form her skirt

• Has both masculine and feminine traits like most Aztec gods

• Hands and feet have claws used to tear the human flesh she ate (yuck)

• Symbolizes sacrificial death

• In Aztec thought, the mother of the gods combined savagery and tenderness, for out of destruction comes new life

Aztec

• Aztec achievement:– Were able to produce some of the most impressive

art due to their nature of conquest:• They took the most talented artists of conquered

territories back to Tenochtitlán• Many of their artists may have been Mixtec

– Contributed to the beautiful pottery, goldwork, and turquoise mosaics commissioned by the Aztec elite

– However, the Aztecs developed their own sculptural style in the height of their power during the late 1400s

Aztec

• Much Aztec art did not survive the Spanish conquest• Conquistadors took Aztec gold artifacts back to Spain

and melted them down• Religious ambassadors/friars destroyed Aztec “idols,”

codices and textiles, believing them to be evil• Aztec artisans even made mosaic-like images with

feathers, an art they used in service of the Catholic Church for a brief time after the conquest, creating religious pictures with the feathers of tropical birds