[Conquest of Azcapotzalco, art original.]

Summary

From the Newberry Library Catalogue: Fragment of a colored pictograph ms., showing the defeat and assassination by the Aztec Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina of Macatl, a chieftain of Azcapotzalco during th...

From the Newberry Library Catalogue: Fragment of a colored pictograph ms., showing the defeat and assassination by the Aztec Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina of Macatl, a chieftain of Azcapotzalco during the Tepanec War of 1428 A.D. The two warriors are shown fighting with shield, bow and arrows, and spear. Below them is a river and a trail of footsteps, linking them with two seated figures who portray Maxtlaton, ruler of Azcapotzalco, and Itzcoatl, emperor of Tenochtitlán. Included among the glyphs are those for Azcapotzalco and for the temazcal or sweat bath in which Maxtlaton took refuge after his defeat. According to Glass (HMAI, vol. 14, p. 301), the ms. is a falsification, the pictorial forms of which were derived from the then unpublished Codex Xolotl, a 16th-century historical ms. from the Texcoco region, now in the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris, and from other pictorial mss. published by Clavigero in 1780-81. In addition, calendrical signs and dates used in the ms. lack structural significance, and the style and proportions are not typical of Indian ms. painting of the pre-Conquest or 16th century.

Show More