Unmaking Empire

ARTH 2445: The Art of Colonial Latin America

Maize God emerging from a flower, 7th – 9th century, Maya, ceramic and pigment, 8 ¼ x 2 1/8, The Brooklyn Museum.

“taking of the K’awiil scepter” - probably 695 – 747

Celebration of reign of ruler in 714 or 766

Head Pendant, Maya, 6th-9th century, carved jade, 3 3/8 x 2 3/16 in., The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Vessel, Metropolitan painter (active 7th-8th century) in present-day Guatemala or Mexico, 600-800, ceramic, slip, 5.5 x 4 x 4 inches, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

“The Founding of Tenochtitlan” in Codex Mendoza, c. 1542, ink on paper, The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, MS Arch. Seiden A.1, fol. 2r.

Fragment of Anthropomorphic Brazier, Aztec, c. 1300, fired clay and pigment, 11 x 22 x 9 cm, Museo Universitario de Ciencias y Arte, UNAM, Mexico City

Amoxtli Tezcatlipoca (Book of the Smoking Mirror), before 1521, gesso, pigments, deer skin, Liverpool Museum

Pendent in the Shape of a Warrior, Aztec, after 1325, cast gold-silver-copper alloy, 11.2 x 6.1 cm, The Cleveland Museum of Art

Hunchback, Aztec, c. 1500, stone, 33 x 17 x 12 cm, Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City

Khipu/ Quipu system of record keeping in the Inca Empire

Lambayaque (Sicán) artist(s), Beaker with inverse faces, 900-1100, gold, 7 7/8 x 7 1/8 in., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Urpu (jar), Inca, 1400-1535, ceramic, slip, 8 5/8 x 7 3/8 x 5 ¾ in., The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Koru (Qero) Cup, Inca, late 16th-17th century, wood, resin, pigment, 7 13/16 x 6 ½ x 6 ½ in., The Brooklyn Museum, New York

All-T’oqapu Tunic, Inka, 1450–1540 (Inka), camelid fiber and cotton, 90.2 x 77.15 cm, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.

Coricancha – Quri Kancha “golden enclosure” Cusco, Peru

Maize Stalk with Cobs, Inka, 1450-1540, silver and silver alloy, 10 x 2 3/8 x 3 ½ in., Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Ethnologisches Museum

Garden Scene, Peru, Chancay or Chimu, 14th-15th century, silver, 2 ¼ x 2 7/8 x 4 in., Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Dressed Miniature Female Votive Figurine, Inka, found in Chile, early 16th century, camelid hair, feathers, spondylus shell, 5.5 x 4.5 in., Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Santiago, Chile

Tupu, Inca, 1400 -1535, copper alloy, 11.5 x 2.65 in., The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Machu Picchu (c. 1450-1540); and its Observatory