By: Daphne

Aztec Art

*Pottery was a religious craft for the Aztecs. *It was not useful for them though.

* Aztecs showed their religion through a variety of sculptures.*They carved small yet realistic figures of animals and people out of Jade, obsidian and quartz.

*A lot of common themes they used were jaguars, ducks, monkeys, snakes, deer, and dogs. *Aztec ornamentations were wildly used.* They tied baskets to the bottom of lakes and filled them with mud.

*Aztec art was mostly expressed in sculptures. *They were dramatic and expressive.*Aztecs often painted gods.*The paintings were horrifying.

*Aztec drawings tell a story.*Tenochtitlan means “cactus rock”.*They stole ideas from other tribes.

*Aztecs also borrowed new ways to do things from the people they conquered*They used animals as their inspiration.*Their art was very realistic.

*Near emperor’s palaces were cloth, jewelry, feathers, and gold.*Sculptors were known as stone workers.*They were trained at an early age.

*The calendar stone is the most famous sculpture in art history.*Craftsmen were called upon to create a variety of masks to be used for religious ceremonies.

*Artistic skills were passed down from worker to worker.*Aztecs pottery usually only used 2 colors.*They used feathers to make head dresses.*They used insects to create their color.*Aztecs painted birds because they symbolized royalty.

*Montezuma's head dress was made of feathers from over 250 birds.*They built houses where they found signs from the gods.

* www.Aztec-Indians.com* www.Aztec-history.com* Library.Thinkguest.org * Harcourt Brace Social Studies Text Book; Harcourt, Inc.; 2002* The Illustrated History Book of Art;