Page 505 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

sacred precinct in the center of Tenochtitlan. coatl, it is hardly surprising that the two high
Rebuilt and enlarged seven times since its priests of the Aztec state were given the Quet-
founding in the early fourteenth century, this zalcoatl title. Like their supernatural mentor,
was a double temple, the north half dedicated the priests practiced the most rigorous fasts and
to Tlaloc and the south half to Huitzilopochtli. penitences, including the letting of their own
Significantly, the Huitzilopochtli temple was blood in honor of the gods.
known to the Aztec as "Coatepec," for in 1978, The antithesis of the clergyman was the sor-
at the foot of the ruined stairway of its fourth cerer, the practitioner of the black arts under
stage, a colossal relief of the dismembered Coy- the patronage of Tezcatlipoca as the supreme
14
olxauhqui was discovered by chance. Subse- wizard. Curers and necromancers, their
quent excavations by Eduardo Matos most powerful medicine was an arm snatched
Moctezuma in what remains of the Great from the corpse of a woman who had died in
Temple have provided a wealth of offerings and childbirth.
other materials related to the cults of Tlaloc and The omnipotent Tezcatlipoca, who could look
Huitzilopochtli through much of Aztec history. into the hearts and thoughts of men with his
In their religion the Aztecs never lost sight of magic mirror, also played a more positive role as
the fact that they were a farming people who patron of the royal house. The emperor ruled
had once been hunters and gatherers. Tlaloc, only by the capricious will of the great god, and
the goggle-eyed rain god, was chief among the on taking office he directed humble prayers of
agricultural deities, and the Aztec multitudes this tenor to the "smoking mirror":
held some of their greatest festivals in his fig. 7. Mosaic-encrusted Human Skull Representing
honor, especially at the start of the rainy season, O master, O our lord, O lord of the near, of Tezcatlipoca. The eyes are convex pyrite mirrors.
sacrificing even little children so that the crops the nigh, O night, O wind, thou hast inclined This was probably the skull of a sacrificed god imper-
The Trustees of the British Museum,
sonator.
might have their needed moisture. A verse from thy heart. Perhaps thou hast mistaken me for London
a hymn to Tlaloc points up the anxiety of a another, I who am a commoner. 16
starving people in times of drought and scarcity:
The ruler's office was thought to be a crushing a litter and accompanied by the highest-ranking
O Lord, Beloved Lord, O Provider! burden laid on him by Tezcatlipoca, for he
May it be in your heart to grant, to give, nobles of his court.
to bring comfort to the earth had total responsibility for the well-being of The lively arts flourished in these royal
and all that lives from it, all that grows his people. admonitions of the households and were generally held in high
Notwithstanding the
on it. 15 esteem among the population. Poetry —meta-
elders and councilors to conduct himself with all phorically known as "flowers, songs"—was
In late spring, just before the coming of the humility, the new emperor was to be sur- highly developed and recited to the beat of
rains, the Aztec nation celebrated the festival of rounded with incredible pomp and even to be the teponaztli (two-toned slit drum, cat. 378).
Xipe Totec ("our lord the flayed one"); for this the subject of strict taboos to the end of his Oratory was greatly elaborated; the ability to
event captives were slain and flayed. The cele- reign. He lived in a luxurious two-story palace express one's thoughts in the Nahuatl tongue by
brants put on the skins, which symbolized the adjacent to the sacred precinct; in it were his employing metaphorical couplets and triplets,
new vegetation that was about to cover the throne room, the royal arsenal, judicial courts, along with many honorifics, commanded great
land. and a temple or hall devoted to the sciences and respect. There was a complex of gods devoted to
Maize was the staff of life in this agricultural music. Bernal Diaz and Cortes were astounded the arts and to pleasure in general, chief of
civilization, and was deified as a goddess with by the royal zoo and aviary, by the botanical and whom were Xochipilli ("flower prince"), the
the calendrical name Chicomecoatl ("seven ser- pleasure gardens, and by the host of dancers, god of summertime (cat. 380), and Macuilxo-
pents") and as the young god Centeotl. But the buffoons, and jugglers devoted to pleasing their chitl ("five flower"), patron of music, dance, and
Aztecs were still proud of their ancestry among sovereign. From the royal kitchens came every gambling.
the hunting tribes of northwestern Mexico, so kind of savory dish and innumerable cups of The real focus of Aztec life on the eve of the
there were important gods of the chase, such as well-frothed chocolate. None could watch while conquest was warfare. Every Aztec boy, unless
Mixcoatl ("cloud serpent," a Chichimec god) and the emperor dined, nor could anyone ever gaze he was of noble birth and thus qualified for
Camaxtli, as well as an annual ritual hunt car- directly at his face. entrance into a seminary, received military
ried out in the hills above the Valley of Mexico. Sumptuary laws were strict: fine cotton training in the telpochcalli under the divine
There was a vast Aztec priesthood, since clothes and ornaments of gold, jade, and tur- aegis of Tezcatlipoca. Like the squires of
every major temple in the nation, from the quoise were restricted to the nobility, high- medieval Europe, young cadets could accompany
Great Temple down to the smallest ones, had a ranking warriors, and the royal family. From seasoned warriors into battle as arms bearers.
sacerdotal staff. The priests were celibate and Sahagiin's account and from the europeanized The Aztec ethos extolled warfare and death on
studied for the profession in a seminary (calme- drawings of Texcocan lords in the Codex Ixtlil- the battlefield or under the sacrificial knife, for
cac), where they learned the mythology and xochitl (cats. 372, 373) we have a good idea of the glorious soul of the dead warrior rose to
traditions, the rituals, and the workings of the what a ruler would wear: golden ear ornaments, accompany the sun as a beautiful humming-
books in which this knowledge was recorded. a labret of cast gold, a cloak, perhaps tie-dyed bird. The battleground itself was praised as the
Because every priest owed his allegiance not and embroidered along the edge, a richly "field of flowers," for in Nahuatl metaphor
only to the god to whom he was devoted but embroidered loincloth, and golden sandals. flowers symbolized blood; moreover, a per-
also to the divine patron of the clergy, Quetzal- Everywhere the emperor went he was borne in petual state of hostility between the empire and

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