IntroPaintingtheConquest (Pp 8 24)

8/2/2019 IntroPaintingtheConquest (Pp 8 24)

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c~..r\~a II'AIXTING THE CONQUEST

~ k. cMexican rulers and their people had been worried by troubling omensfor a number of years. So when rumors of the arrival of strangers onthe coast became explicit, all-powerful Moctezuma, lord of Mexico-Tenochtidan, listened carefully to the report delivered by hi~ counselor. Then he ordered the finest of his painters to record the imageof these unknown beings who traveled on "floating mountains." TheMexican monard1 was amazed by the appearance of these beardedcreatures with their white skin and colorful clothing, and in an effortto fathom this mystery, Moctezuma had the archives of every city inthe Valley of Mexico and the southern regions searched for paintingsthat might show something similar. Thus was brought to light thevery first image of Spaniards and the European invasion, producedaround 1518.1 This visual representation of the conquistadorespreceded their arrival, as though underlining the extent to whichimages would play a coDlplex and ambivalent role in the extraordinaryconflict between indigenous America and Europe.2

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N~

An Unprecedented Experiment

~IThe discovery of America represents a crucial stage in the history ofWestern society insofar as it pulled an entire continent into theEuropean orbit. It forced an encounter between two worlds that hadbeen devdoping independently of one another for thousands of years.This confrontation constituted a fatal shock of incredible brutality forthe inhabitants of the New World; entire civilizations were devastatedby the conquistadores. Worse, the epidemics that followed (orsometimes preceded) these invaders destroyed native society bydecimating whole generations, silencing oral tradition and swellinggraveyards everywhere, from the Caribbean to Mexico and fromPanama to Chile.'Such disasters tend to mask a battle of another type, perhaps lessbloody yet just as crucial in the long run. The Spanish conquest led toa clash between High Renaissance culture and extremely sophisticatedindigenous fonDS of thought and expression. Alongside explorers,merchants and conquistadores, numerous administrators and mission-aries spread humanist values and attempted to transplant the religious,I artistic and intellectual accomplishments of the European Renaissanceonto American-and more particularly Mexican-soil. Even thoughsuch cultural projection was merely another form of colonization anddomination, it nevertheless provoked a local cultural reaction ofremarkable quality and diversity. This led to an experiment uniqueto the sixteenth century: the Renaissance arts of sculpture, architectureand painting 4 entered into a dialogue with traditions that had

been cultivated by pre-Columbian civilizations for millennia. Thisastonishing experiment in coexistence between European and nativeworlds raised countless questions in addition to the basic issue ofartistic creativity, for it challenged the very foundations of Mexican

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J7 -- 2(.0INTRODUCTION ,c

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The God Tezcatlipoca, , an ejfectof elegance,igor and _lIIimy oj suited his calendaro ~ tile daypertain-of the Twenty "Trecenaa" means. M content as itIuIl aIIIl Jiuinaiory ing to questions ut to them, tben analyzedCycles) signiji&ance. he omniscient, b;q.;tousgod tile divine orcesgoverning hat day.Fejervary- Mayer, p. 44 Tezcatlipocas recognizabley tile obsidian Thebodyof tile deity s a patchworkof orna-min-or that replaces is maim! foot. He ments,apparel,colors nd emblemsowkich0. tile high plateau oj central govmled wenty recenas,at:lI ne .presented severalrecena lyphs hIJDe een ltached, ss oj uncertaindate and here by a glyph and twelve Jots. These though image and language were organically

It is painted on both sides of a twenty cyeles of thirteen days comJlrised tile, linked. Thus tile4ynamic concepts behind thistrip of deerhide,and its two /wndredand sixty days of till antim(' visual analysisoj tile interplay of time andstyle and clearoutlinesproduce MaiCIm ritual calendar.Soothsayerso.l divineorces an iterally he "sn." ~


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I.IAINTING THE CONQUEST

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LJ-s, colDrs, -' symbols.nii dlJr.SJyftlli nlrjace diffen- sll4r/Jlytrma the sobn-MIS oj the JKedi"l coda. Nole also the&OUtGftl, sigm"./il-t use of eolor, tJw 6014/ius tlIfilliJlg -' llftdI1'seon",MCAimn,and the abSell&e oj bac/cgrolUld IlIat yields G1&exelusiDny wo-dimensional reprumtGtioII.

3. 'The Codex BorgiaNight and the Gada of RainCodex Borgia, p. 30

an GtGW. TAes. plIIJIls proWl" r't"'G""t1aIpill4Ts holding up t1aI sky, t1aI colUmlLrdown wAick comaicrJ,cu jlowld.from haomto aI7tA. 1M lOlls oj rGiJI IIuI! 4 rrddisk bI1rJ.,.J wiIk sIGn, rIIIrtSIftti"l ,,;,I&t.R4IlIIr than Fumting 4 realistic imatr ojt1aI world, t1aI P4inllr was seeking to COIIV'.1its a.p. US",", rrJIdIniIg uoIIric systmualmost PtIlpaJJllby combillittt alia' ctmJrasting

nu p/4II is takm ftvm . ,1C:tiOIIof III.~ dIDot.I to rills. 1M gods oj r...n CGIIhI,- in 1II.!oW' ~s, rwpr.sIIIting III.four points of tAl world. n,.. of ,.'G71Y Iws 011 Alir bGek, tAl joIIrlII eaniG

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PAINTIWC THE CONQUEST2

civilization. To what extent, on what levels, and at what cost couldlocal artists manage to reconcile the irreconcilable? For how longcould they juggle two ways of seeing and experiencing the world,two ways that had nothing in common at the outset? Their effortsresulted in ~ development of new forms during the sixt;enthcentury, forms that will be examined here in an attempt to identifythe inner strength and scope of Mexican creativity in the face ofculture shock. This should demonstrate how inappropriate it is tospeak of a t~y "subjugated vision." Indians did not limit themselvesto the role of passive spectators, they actively created images. Theirwrenching testilnony magnificently communicates what no text hasconveyed aIKi what no archive could record-the transformation andEuropeanizati~ of a way of seeing that remained faithful to ancientcanons.~

I

The Lords of Mexico

4. Commentary on the Apocalypse,Liebana Beatus ManuscriptLondon, British Library,Add. MS 11695, (01. 86 b v.As this richly lluminated omanesqueanu-script rom Catalonia llustrates,Mes--ican manuscriptswere not tile only ones ofeature polychrome im4gery in a dense UJeaDeoj symbols,_hlems and polysemic igns.Medieval Europe IIot only used mages OTteaehing urposes,hut also endowed hemwith a significancederived rom shapes,colors and metaphysical oncepts-without,however,granting nli:h images he Sa&Teastalw oj Byzantine icons. In WesternEurope, as in Byzantium, umiten script-the Holy Scriptures-constitutedheprimefonn oj learned ommunication, nd imageswere linked to text. In Mexico, however,pictographswereentirelyself-sufficient.

Before examining and deciphering these images, it is worth dwellingon the nature of the universe that produced them. Central Mexico isa region particularly conducive to this approach. Like other highplateaus on the American continent, it harbored refined and complexcivilizations that flourished around large urban centers.6 The Valleyof Mexico sits in the middle of this altiplano, shut off from thec~a$tby the snowy, volcanic peaks of Ixtaccihuad and Popocateped, andshielded to the south and west by other ridge lines. At an altitude ofover 7,000 feet, the valley originally held a series of shallow lakes,some of which were freshwater, others saltwater, depending on thelake and on me season. Fishing craft had plied these waters fromtime iJ:nInemorial, gliding among bulrushes, irises and reeds, attractedby a temperate climate in which the brilliant midday sun gave wayto cool nights. Gatherers of worms and parasites, salt peddlers, andpea$ants had seen successive invaders pass through, political powerswax and wane. Fidds of corn and patiendy cultivated gardens onartificial islands produced abundant crops that fed the populous citiesand towns.Ancient cities still prospered along lakeshores dotted with greenash and oak. Their history could be traced back not only to theprestigious, legendary epoch of the Toltecs (A.D. 1000), but evenfarther to the mysterious inhabitants of Teotihuacan in the northea$tpart of the valley. The gigantic pyramids at Teotihuacan, dating vfrom the dawn of the Christian era, still cast their long shadows.7Then, around 1325, while France and England were locked in theHundred Years War, an obscure tribe took refuge on a swampyisland. They were the descendants of a group that had entered theValley of Mexico roughly one hundred years earlier. These men andwomen slowly abandoned their nomadic lifestyle for the benefits andconstraints of a sedentary- society.8 lncorrecdy ~ed Aztecs today,


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INTRODUCTION .1

fenaI to themselves as Mexica, and were part of thefamily 01: Naua tribes. Within one hundred years, the smalls~ent on the lake had become the powerful city ofAround 1428-three years before Joan of Arcl..rned at the stake-it entered into an alliance with two nearbyaDd Tlacopan. This Triple Alliance progressivelyits aJntroI over the Mexico basin and the center of theits victorious armies reaching the Gulf of Mexico aroundyean later, toward 14,92, hey had pushed as far as theOceall7 at Acapulco. No one realized at that point that anotherwas just beKifining back east, for late in 1492 Christopherbad readied Cuba and Haiti.At the time of the Spanish invasion, the city of Mexico- Tenochtitlana large population, probably upward of two hundred thousandAll war booty as well as the tribute regularly paid by

subjq:t to the Triple Alliance was sent to Mexico- Tenochtitlan.rare goods up from Guatemala and the Maya country afterdifficult trek across hostile, uncharted lands. Tlatelolco, an islandfrom Maico- Tenochtitlan by nothing but a canal, was themarket buzzing with thousands of voicesthe goods that arrived from the valley and the rest of theGoldsmiths, featherworkers, and weavers did businessmerchants who traded precious gems, cocoa beans and cottonin hot countries, as well as shiny copper hatchets, wroughtsilver, amber and slaves.IIscent of spices mingled with fragrant racks of flowers, the acridof braziers, and the incense wafting down from the temples.

t the center of this great city on the lake-omphalos of thepillar of the heavens-a vast ceremonial precinctthe main temples and schools.12 Temple priests werethe religious celebrations that punctuatedSanctuaries splattered with the blood of humanwere located right next to the college grounds where theof nobles studied the complexities of Mexica knowledgetime that they subjected their bodies to constant

5. The Resurrection of the DeadPedro de la Vega, FloB Sanctorum,Saragossa, 1521Illustratedbooks began appearing in Spainin tile Iau fiJtnth cmtury, often publishedby printers from Norlhem Europe. ThecOllqUistadoTtSnd missionaries were able tocarry these hooks and images across tileAtlantic more easily than statues and paint-ings. SuclI ellgTavings were thus tile visualsourceor Indians developing European-s~ledecoratioe echniques. Monochrome images,Plus tile use of hatching to suggest shadingand DOlume,WeTeas exotic to tile Indiansthen as pre-Hispanic pictograPhic canonsappear today. This resurrection scene wascopied n stone n Mexico by native sculptors.

of Imagessocieties had no alphabetic writing, they resorted to theto express their identity and extolpower. Huge rites deployed thousands of celebrants, frescoesacross temple walls, and images were inscribed on deerhide,or agave bark. These are what students studied in school;refer to them as codices, but sixteenth-century Spaniardscalled them "paintings."!4 Such works contained entire domains


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J* PAIN18KG THE CONQUEST

of Mexican knowledge, but only a few rare examples survive, suchas the Codex Borgia. They were painted by specialists known astiacuilos, a Nahuad term that meant both painter and scribe. Tlacuilos), were probably recruited from the priesdy and noble castes, and were~y rained in the schools.ISAt the time of the Spanish conquest, all, major cities in the center of the country had their own painters: (sometimes widely known for their erudition) as well as a storehouse~of "paintings." 16 Tlacuilos were closely linked to the ruling class, for(they not only mastered a sophisticated technique but also had accessto knowledge of incalcul~ble value-what they called "red ink, blackiink." 17This included the lore of myths, the content and meaning of/ rites, and the genealogies of princes and rulers.18 Apparendy tlacuiloswere organized into teams headed by a master and aided by assistants,for this division of labor continued after the Spanish conquest.The artists would draw and paint on a surface that often foldedlike an accordion. Once unfolded, the resulting strip was several

yards long and could be read in various ways. Objects, charactersand geometric shapes were deployed across the space in a stylizedrepresentation conforming to strict and precise canons that permittedf unambiguous identification of concepts, people and things-monarchs,! lords, fmery, weapons, furniture, buildings. Highly distilled symbolsh were used for frequendy recurring concepts such as mountain, stone,i water, and speech (represented by a volute issuing from the mouthof the speaker). These were accompanied by signs indicating thenames of places, people, or days. In fact, painters employed arepertoire of glyphs that could be broadly divided into three categories.Pictographs depicted objects, beings and actions in a stylized manner(animals, plants, buildings, dance scenes, etc.). Ideographs, on the

other hand, conveyed qualities or categories associated with the objectrepresented (an eye signifying vision, a footprint signifying travel, aroyal banner indicating sovereignty, and so on). Finally, phoneticsymbols, though few in number, were used to transcribe syllablesindicating the names of places, people or chronological data. Thisphonetic system was still in an embryonic stage and functioned as asort of rebus, suggesting sounds similar to the word to be expressed.For example,

D1 oun t ain

parapet

diadem.path

cue~lli ("red quetzal feathers") +tlantli ("tooth")= place name for Cuetzalan [from Cuetza(lli) + tlan(tli)]Such symbols did not therefore transpose speech, nor did theyattempt to do so. Nor, for that matter, were they arranged in linearfashion like a European alphabet.19In this respect, the Mexica had no writing system, in the strictsense of the term. Instead, image systems ordered symbols accordingto multiple criteria and patterns. A Dominican observer who had

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INTRODUCTION 15

long studied this source material summed up the strangeness of nativeexpression (and the perplexity of Europeans) in the following way:"paintings. . . are used as letters for writing down their histories andancient lore by means of paintings and effigies." 20 Such paintingsare two-dimensional, devoid of background. Page layout, the scale ofsymbols, the position they occupy in relation to one another, and theway they are grouped together are all elements that determine boththe direction in which the codex is to be read and its ultimatemeaning. In addition, the colors filling the spaces ddineated by thethick, regular strokes of the tlacuilos constituted chromatic variationsthat influenced m~g.21 This explains how the authors of codicescould associate and combine two activities-painting and writing-which European culture considers radically distinct.22 This is alsowhy such "painting" must inevitably be read and deciphered onseveral levels. Topographic information appears inextricably linkedwith religious, historical, social and even econom~c details. Notsurprisingly it is extremely difficult for non-natives to rediscover theeye's path across these colorful surfaces, to apprehend the dialecticof overall comprehension versus fragmentary analysis. It is thereforeimpossible to speak of writing in the usual sense of the term. Itwould seem that decoding the paintings originally required a two-fold operation: while the eye scanned the images, the reader utteredwords inspired by oral tradition. Sound and image apparendycomplemented one another, without the one being a version of theother. Paintings were thus "made" to speak and, in turn, "paintings"reinforced and refreshed oral memory.23This rapid overview should suffice to demonstrate how the lack ofan alphabet, far from constituting a handicap, was largely offset bythe multiple resources of an expressive idiom fundamentally rootedin images. The extensive fields of knowledge contained in the codicesis proof of this. Both concrete and abstract ideas could be expressedin picture writing; highly subde concepts often unfolded before uniniti-ated European eyes unable to grasp their depth and extremesophistication.24 "Paintings" could also convey chronologies, sequencesof events, calendars, ritual celebrations, lists of merchandise andgoods sent in tribute. Prophecies, in particular, abounded-therewe're "books of years and time," "days and ceremonies," "dreamsand omens." 25The profound reasons behind this strong attraction todivination, a marked feature of Mexican civilization, will be discussedlater.

Yet is it truly possible to spe"ak of "images" per se, as thoughancient Mexicans shared European vocabulary and concepts? It seemsthat they considered images to be more than just a representation orfiguration of things existing in another place, another time. Mexicanimages were designed to render certain aspects of the divine worldphysically present and palpable; they vaulted a barrier that Europeansensesare normally unable to cross. The thrust of the brush and the


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16 PAINTING THE CONQUEST

coupling of shapes and colors literally brought the universe of thegods to life on agave bark or deerhide. Which is why human bloodwas dripped onto these codices-to nourish the beings present inthem. In this respect the techniques practiced by tlacu,ws were morea path to divinity than a means of expression. Pre-Hispanic canonsof selection and arrangement were designed to help grasp and extractthe Essential. An image rendered "visible" the very essence of thingsbecause t was an extension of that essence.26 his is why the religiousinstruction given to tia&uilos n the schools was an indispensable partof their artistic education. Spiritual accomplishment went hand inhand with technical mastery, as suggested by the duality of theNahuad tenD "red ink, black ink." 27

Given their content and the mysterious force they were supposedto incarnate, it is easy to see why these "paintings" attracted theattention of Christian missionaries arriving on the heels of the Spanishconquistadores. Such images were too closely linked to pagan worshipto escape the destructive energy of invaders who demolished templesand statues and masked diabolical frescoes with whitewash. In theirquest to destroy everything that smacked of idolatry, conquistadoresand missionaries indiscriminately burned all "paintings" beginningin 1520. By the latter half of the sixteenth century, a Dominicanfriar would lament such excesses, which hampered the work ofhistorians of the day. "Ill-informed people thought they were idols. . .when in fact they were histories worthy or being saved instead ofbeing consigned to oblivion." 28Meanwhile, the calmecac chools wherepainters and priests studied had been closed.29

6. The City of RomeFasciculus temporum, Seville, 148077I.is oiew of Rome is as stereotyped asany pre-Hispanic glyph, with snatches oflandscape, ramparts, towers and housescompletelyunrelated to historical reality. It isan emblem of a city that mjoyed considerableinflumce as one of the metaphysical centersof the European universe. For a nanoeMexican artist confronted with. such animage, the problem lay less with the clicht'(whose oerisimilitude mattered little) thanwith what it was supposed o evoke.Architec-ture represmtedanoth.ermigma, since Indi-ans had to imagine the onginal buildingsbasedon this stylized shorthand.

The destruction of the codices exacdy coincided with the invasion ofEuropean images. In the course of their campaigns, Hernando Cortesand the conquistadores distributed coundess pious images to thenative Mexicans. Missionaries, administrators and colonists followedin their path, bringing to the new world illustrated books, print~,paintings and tapestries that confronted the conquered people with anew way of seeing and representing the world.3O Unlike the Mexicans,the invaders-that is to say, the Europeans-assumed that text andimage functioned on two autonomous, discrete levels. In addition tothis unsetding innovation, European images possessed unfamiliarfeatures. The natives were surprised and fascinated by the use ofperspective-or even the simple suggestion of depth and the thirddimension-as well as by shadings of color, the representation oflandscape, and line engraving techniques.31 The canons employed bythe Indians were totally different, even if pre-Columbian civilizationswere able, when they judged it appropriate, to achieve a representa-tional realism that astonished the invaders.32 European works alsocontained a host of decorative patterns-alongside illustrations and


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PAINTING THE CONQUEST

8: Ritual Calendarfrom the Codex BorgiaCodex Borgia, pp. 19-22screen, ike the ancient codiees hat were ,..tpaginated in the Europ.n manner bIl,tuIifoldtd like an accordion befo,., the eyes ifpriests and their disciples. As the g~ swt/Jtacrossan enormous hiriy-Joot screen, he ty,would pick out infonnatioll by jollowi~subtlepaths completely ndeptndtnt of today slinear, left-to-right readi"C FPCess.The first tkrtt plaItS presmt an abridgedversion of the ritual calIIIdar. Starti"C atthe lower right of the two fold-out pages,the plattS are to he read.from right to lefton the lower register, then i" the ~siudirtion on the upper register. ,;Stvtral deities appear in the lower:;:,.,gister:QJIItzalcoatl, the god of wind, is ~ifiabltby his beak. He appears to he g;oi"C anorder with a gesture of his right liaRd, while

1nis eodex s one of the ~ magnifi~tpre-HispanicmanuscriptsollalJe surviv~'It revIis ile main catilmsgoverning l'adi-tiontdMexican aFt. Its dau and geOgraphicorigin are ImCeI'tain-it may oJilinate romthe n-calIl.:Puebla areaorjrtim thenorthernMixte& region. TIre~ &rgia combinesdescriptions f maj"r rites with the ritualcalendar. The s6t:tWn n rites containsnoless thtm six hundredcharacters see, orexample, "Night and tile Gods oj Rain, "illus. 3). .1nis fragment rom tile ritual calendar spresented ere in tile form of a ftlding


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"N~R.ODUCTION ~

The codex should be readin the direction indicated above

red Tezcotiipocaplay pewta on tJu H-shape4'court.On tJu upper register, reading.from left toright, tJufirst scene hows a red TeualLipot:a(r.presenting a merchant) being attat:ked'bya black Tezt:atlipot:a (representing a thief).NeXt, Tlaloc is depicted in a field of com,and in"tJu last scene TlahuizuJpantet:ulli,in tiI6 form of woodcutter, chops down atru.Tile last plate on tiI6 ar left marks a changein direction.from left to right, starling attiI6 top. This plate also contains an abridgedriJual calendar in tiI6 upper register, illus-trated with two deer-one pierced by a speorand tiI6 other already dead (in white). TheWUJeTegister shows two days of tiI6 twenty-day month with corresponding ites.

hand brandishes a bone pike, anand a sack of copal. Opposite(separated by a sacrificial vic-is TlahuizC4I~, god of the

Venus, kJleelingon a platjoml adornedtwo skulls. Flowing off this platfonna spring (at right) and a ,lutch of~Uow,Tass, which togttiler comprise th!for war (atl-tlachinolli). &tweenIi C4ptive wiili anns boundchest split open by an obsidian A:nife asspunsJorlh. Above the victim, a blood-serpent, cut in sections, holds the corddecorated with heron eatAers in

shows ~ and a naked0"" a body of water,. ill thescme, a blll&k Tezcatlipoc. and a


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.,PAINTING THE CONQUEST4

swiftly realized that they needed to fathom the indigenous world inorder to master it. The thoughtless and hasty destruction of local"paintings" had worked against their own interests.3DThe evangelistsbegan questioning pagan priests and studying pictographic codieescontaining information on this irrecoverable past, to acquire exactknowledge of the gods, rdigious customs and practices that theyintended to refute and purge from memory 39 As good humanists,however, they were also careful to save what seemed right and goodto them, just as masterpieces from pagan Rome and Greece hadbeen admired and collected by Renaissance Europeans.40 Mexican"painting" -writing that was not really writing-simultaneouslyattracted and disconcerted missionaries brought up in a civilizationin which writing had assumed a primordial role for centuries,reinforced in recent decades by printing. They therefore sought outthe services of tlacuilo painters, asking them to bring their codices,coIDIDent on the images, explain shapes and symbols-in short, toreproduce everything the Indians felt was significant.4c1The tlacuilos were thus obliged to adapt to the colonial situationand to the conquerors' demands. They could either pursue formerpre-Hispanic traditions on their own, running the risks that wentwith producing and harboring idolatrous imagery, or they couldcollaborate-to a certain extent-with the priests' investigations.They might, for instance, censure whatever their respect for tradition(or their guilty conscience as Christian novices) prevented them fromrevealing to the missionaries. Whatever the case, the new styles,techniques and means of expression that they were induced to adoptbroke with centuries of artistic learning and creativity.

IntroPaintingtheConquest (Pp 8 24)

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