Art History Exam 1

Images

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Title: Page from the Codex Boturini; Leaving Aztlan (going to Culhuacan – “Bent Hill”, Culture: Mexica, Date: 1530-
1541, Medium: ink on amate paper Context: From Codex Boturini

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Title: Page from Codex Boturini; Migration Begins, Culture: Mexica, Date: 1530-1541, Medium: amate, Context: 8 ‘houses,’ and 4 leaders, 1 carrying Huitzilopochtli, From Codex Boturini

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Title: Chicomoztoc (Seven Caves), Culture: Nahua or Mexican or Mexica, Date: mid 16th century, Medium: ink on European paper, Context: from the Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca, ink on European paper, Site: Puebla

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Title: Page from the Codex Telleriano-Remensis depicting ‘Chichimec’ hunters, Culture: Mexica/Aztec, Date: 16th
century, Medium: ink on European paper, Context: Chichimec; nomadic people, also used as barbaric or backwards people

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Title: Atlantean columns (Toltec Warriors) on top of Pyramid B, ACulture: Toltec, Date: 10th century, Medium: Stone? Context: Tula, Hidalgo

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Title: Eight High Lords (Elites) from Codex Mendoza, Culture: Mexica/Aztec, Date: 1542, Medium: ink on European paper

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Title: Tribute Page from Codex Mendoza, Culture: Mexica/Aztec, Date: 1542, Medium: ink on european paper, Context: Importance of raw materials and
man-made products

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Title: Page from the Codex Mendoza, Ceremonial Center of Tenochtitlan, Culture: Mexica/Aztec, Date: 1542, Medium: ink on European paper

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Title: Coatlicue, ‘She of the Serpent Skirt’, Culture: Aztec, Date: 15^th century, Medium: stone, Site: Templo Mayor

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Title: Fiberglass cast of the image of Tlaltecuhtli, the Earth Lord, carved on the underside of the Coatlicue

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Title: Urn with Tlaloc Face, Medium: painted ceramic, Culture: Aztec, Date:15^th century, Site: Tenochtitlan

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Title: Labret with articulated tongue (Lip Plug), Date: 15^th century, Medium: gold, Culture: Mexica/Aztec

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Title: Cuauhxicalli (Eagle gourd/vessel) Medium: Greenstone, Date: 15^th century/1481-1519, Culture: Mexica/Aztec, Context: visibility and invisibility

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Title: Sculpture of a Woman, Date: 15^th century, Medium: basalt, Culture: Mexica

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Title: Warrior Figures, Date: 15^th century, Medium: stone, shell and paint, Culture: Mexica

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Title: Templo Mayor (Main Temple) -“Twin Pyramids” shrines at top 1) Tlaloc and 2) Huitzilopochtli, Culture: Mexica/Aztec, Site: Tenochtitlan Medium on different slide, Date ?

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Title: Xiuhtecuthli (fire god), Medium: stone with pigment, Date: 15^th century, Culture: Mexica

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Title: Urns with the figure of Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl, Date: 15^th century, Medium: ceramic, Culture: Mexica

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Title: Tlatecuhtli colors and Date: of 1478, 12 Rabbit, Culture: Mexica/Aztec Medium: Stone?

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Title: Sun Stone or Calendar Stone or Stone of the Fifth Sun, Culture: Aztec, Date: 15^th century, Medium: Stone

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Title: Eagle Cuauhxicalli, Date: 1481-1521, Medium: stone, Culture: Mexica

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Title: Gladiatorial fight between captive and an Aztec Eagle warrior) from the Tovar manuscript, Date: 16^th century, Medium: Ink on European paper, Culture: Mexica

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Title: Coyolxauhqui, Medium: green stone and Title: Coyolxauhqui, Medium: basalt, Date: both c. 1500, Culture: Mexica

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Undercarving on Coyolxauhqui

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Title: Stone of Tizoc, Medium: basalt, Date: ~1481-1486, Culture: Aztec, Context: Tizoc (ruled 1481-1486) in the guise of Huitzilopochtli “he who does sacrifice”

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Title: Hackmack Box, Medium: granite, tepetlacalli – stone box, Date: 1503, Culture: Mexica, invisibility and visibility, 4 directions, Tlatlechutli? or Moon Coyo..?

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Title: Coiled Xiuhcoatl, Date: 1507, Medium: quartz diorite, Culture: Mexica, Context: 2 Reed = 1507 New Fire

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Title: Chacmool, Medium: basalt, Date: 1480-1519, Culture: Mexica

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Title: Xiuhmolpilli, (52-year bundle) Medium: stone, Date: c. 1507, century, 2 Reed date - 1507, Culture: Mexica

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Title: Huitzilopochtli’s tlaquimilolli, Florentine Codex, Book 8, folio 46r, Date: 1575-1577, Medium: ink on European paper, Culture: Mexica

Aztlan

Old home of the Mexica/Tenochcas people

Tenochtitlan

new home of the Aztec people

Mexcia/Tenochcas are part of what people and speak what language

Nahua people, Nahautl language

When was the Aztec empire created and how

1428, triple alliance between Tlacopan, Texcoco and Tenochtitlan

Atlepetl

city state, also means water mountain or place of civilization

Tlatonani

Ruler

Teuctli

lord

Macehaulli

(manpower) commoners

What are the two different Mexica migration accounts

1) Migration from Aztlan to Tenochtitlan, 2) People come from caves (Chicomoztoc- seven caves)

Differences in Migration accounts

There are different variants to the accounts. In some the sign for Tenochtitlan is an eagle (associated with sun and Huitzilopochtli) on top of a cactus plant. In others, The cactus plant grows out of a stone that was previously a heart belonging to Copil – Huitzilopochtli’s nephew. Copil is the daughter of Malinalxochitl (Grass Flower).

Important stops on the migration route: Chapultepec

(Hill of the Grasshopper) which was an advantageous posistion for the Mexica

Important stops on the migration account: Coatepec

(Hill or place of the Serpent) where Huitzilopochtli was born

Pictorial and textual manuscripts for the sources on migration and origin accounts

Codex Boturini/La Tira de Peregrinacion, Codex Duran, Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca, Codex Telleriano-Remensis

Pictogram

information is conveyed representationally

Ideogram

single image conveys larger or unportrayable ideas, concepts, or things

Phonetic referents

pictoral elements that function soley as phonetic referents

Homonyms

Same glyph but different meaning

Toponyms

place glyphs

Tlacuilo

both male and female artist/scribe

Codex Mendoza, Commissioner

Don Antonio de Mendoza, viceroy of Mexico

Codex Mendoza, purpose

wanted to show evidence of an Aztec tribute and political system

Codex Mendoza creation

invited trained artists and scribes (Aztec nobles) who were being schooled at the Franciscan college in Tlateloco to gather and document evidence for him

Codex Mendoza makeup

consists of 72 folios on European paper (vs. native amatl or animal skin)

Codex Mendoza sections

1) pre-hispanic history of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan (Conquest and Founding of City) 2) Tribute accounts 3) Pictorial Account of Daily Life

Codex Mendoza recto

right or front side

Codex Mendoza verso

left or back side

Xuihpohualli

365 day solar calendar, also ritual

tonalamatl

260 ritual calendar

Long count

linage calendar used by groups such as Olmec and Maya

How does Paztory define Aztec art?

1) Primary function of Aztec art was the communication of ideas about their place in the cosmos and i human society 2) Material may be as important as its function 3) emphasis on symbolic representation 4) reflect prinicples of heirarchy, topography, and substitution

Pastory iconographic conventions

Designs - never just ornamental, glyphs, emblems - these are really ideograms, supernatural world (including deities), actions (narration and sequence), compositional patterns - relationship and different elements

Toltecaye

artist

Viewing or seeing in mesoamerica

restricted, occluded, outright concealment, images are absconded from view, time audience and access all shape the expirence of a work of art, different works of art become difficult to see at different moments in their life cycles, memory and vision, privlege sighting and potent vision (elites, supernaturals, shamans, priests), seeing as embodied, durational and always political activity

Tenochtitlan population estimates

200,000+

Tenochtitlan ritual precinct included

Temple Mayor, Temple of Ehectl, Ballcourt, Tzompantli, Living Quarters for Elite and Priests (as well as other specialty neighborhoods/barrios like those for goldsmiths, lapidarians, feather workers, teachers, warriors, tax administrators, prisoners, and more)

Tenochtitlan building materials

volcanic stone, plaster (from timber), paint and more

Temple Mayor began by ruler…

Itzcoatl

Temple Mayor expanded by _

Moctezuhma 1 (after the great famine of 1452-1354)

Templo Mayor shrines

1) dedicated to Tlaloc 2) dedicated to Huitzilopochtli (often reffered to as “Twin Pyramids”

Templo Mayor Tlaloc

associated with water and wet season

Templo Mayor Huitzilopochtli

associated with the sun and dry season

Templo Mayor Huitz+Tlaloc

Together they read as the glyph/text for ‘fire-water’ or war

Temple Mayor expansions

expanded 7 times (superimposition - location never changed; therefore location is fundamental center and sacred)

Templo Mayor place

symbolically connected to place of Huizilopochtli’s birth (Coateptl - Serpent Mountain) and the creation of the cosmos

Templo Mayor monument

has huge coyolxauhqui circular monument

Offerings at Templo Mayor

sacrificial victums (war captives and other types of ‘offerings’ such as animals and more), tribute items from other locations, looted materials from ‘pilgramages to Teotihuacan and other sacred sites, deity images, sculptures of animals, gods, shells, and more, ceramics

Excavations and Finds: Coatlicue and the Sun Stone

1790

Excavations and Finds: Stone of Tizoc

1791

Excavations and Finds: early excavations the Templo Mayor (Manuel Gamio)

1913-1914

Excavations and Finds: metro excavations

1967, including the finds of Coyolxhauqui monuments (circular and greenstone)

Excavations and Finds: excavations under Cathedral Metropolitana

1975

Excavations and Finds: Museum of Tenochtitlan Project (now Museum of Templo Mayor)

1977

Excavations and Finds: Tlatecuhtli Monument

2008

Excavations and Finds: new excavations at the Templo Mayor and Tenochtitlan

2009

Excavations and Finds: extension to the museum

2012

Architecture verified by archaeological finds

Temple de Ehecatle Quetxalcoatl (Wind God Quetzalcoatl), I shaped ballcourt, El Cuahxicalco “in the place of the eagle container” - circular building with serpent heads, found near the Templo Mayor, close to the Huitzilopochtli’s side (therefor associated with agricultural rituals and tlatoani rituals), Circular tzompantli

Sun Stone (Stone of the Fifth Sun)

Carved from basalt, measures over 11 ft in diameter, Weighs more than 24 tons

Quimilli

Bundle, term is also a classifier or quantifier e.g. ‘a bundle of cloths or blankets’, ‘to wrap someone or something in a blanket, to enshroud’

Xiuhmolpilli

(52 year bundle) and New Fire Ceremony

Tlaquimilolli

sacred bundle

Other concepts associated with bundles

Healing and curing, ancestor, deities, Teotl (sacred energy)