Page 519 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

53
every European who discussed it. Another
more puzzling drawing shows an Indian holding
a shield with a grayish-blue cross bordered with
gray feathers who is armed with a tooth-edged
steel-colored lance decorated with white and red
tassels, clearly of European origin. He may be
one of the Indian allies who helped Cortes in his
fight against the Aztecs or may simply have
been intended to illustrate how Indians were
then subjected to the emperor's will. 54
Weiditz drew the Aztecs with great care,
recording their features and attending to their
individual characteristics. His approach marks a
new development in the European image of
native Americans. This attempt to depict as
carefully as possible the inhabitants of the
newly discovered countries parallels the attempt
of a few sympathetic scholars, such as Peter
Martyr d'Anghiera, to collect historical and eth-
nographic information. It also looks forward to
the much more ambitious efforts of several of
the early friars in Mexico, such as Toribio de
Motolinia, Bernardino de Sahagun, and Diego
Duran, who actually learned the native lan-
guages and studied the indigenous cultures in
55
detail. Unfortunately other Europeans were
more preoccupied with the plunder and enslave-
ment of the American natives.

fig. 6. Christoph Weiditz, "Mexican Indian." Track tenbuch, 1529, pi. 2:
"Thus the Indians go, they have precious jewels inset in their faces; they can
take them out and put them in again when they wish."
Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg N O T E S
1. Hans Rupprich, Durer, Schrifdicker Nachlass, 3
vols. (Berlin, 1956-1969), 1:155; see Jan Albert
the hot country It is rolled into balls which, place where the dice come to rest, removing and Goris and Georges Marlier, Albrecht Durer: Diary
49
although heavy and hard to the hand, bounce adding them [according to the cast]/' The of His Journey to the Netherlands, 1520-1521
and jump very well, better than our inflated Aztecs played for stakes, wagering according to (London, 1971), 64.
ones The players may hit the ball with any their means. At times they would wager "all 2. The best account and the various early descriptions
part of the body they please, although certain their goods in this game, and at times... even can be found in Marshall H. Saville, The Goldsmith's
strokes are penalized by loss of the ball. Hitting put their bodies to be sold into slavery/' 50 Art in Ancient Mexico (Indian Notes and Mono-
an<
^ 191-206, n.
graphs) (New York, 1920), 20-39
it with the hips or thighs is the most approved The costumes of the Aztecs in the Trachten- 13; also Marshall H. Saville, 'The Earliest Notices
play, for which reason they protect those parts buch match Lopez de Gomara's description of Concerning the Conquest of Mexico by Cortes in
with leather shields. The game lasts as long as the dancers of Motecuhzoma's court who per- 1519," Indian Notes and Monographs 9, i (1920),
the ball is kept bouncing, and it bounces for a formed "dressed in rich mantles woven of many 1-54. Interesting is also Jan Veth and Samuel
Reise, 2
Muller, Albrecht Durers Niederlandische
long time." The aim of this ritual game seems to colours, white, red, green, and yellow..., some vols. (Berlin and Utrecht 1918), 2:100-108.
have been, according to Juan de Torquemada, to of them carrying fans of feathers and gold." 51 3. Francisco Lopez de Gomara, La istoria de las Indias
shoot the ball through stone rings set into the Weiditz rendered with great care the idiosyn- y conquista de Mexico, 2 vols. (Saragoza, 1552), fol.
47
side walls. In Weiditz's drawing (cat 406) the crasies of Aztec costume, drawing garments xxiv; see Saville Art 1920, 202-203.
players knock the rubber ball with their but- such as the tilmatli, a square cloak worn on one 4. For example Auguste Bouche-Leclercq, L'astrologie
tocks; they are nude but for the protective shoulder. One of the natives, identified as a 5. grecque (Paris, 1899), 315-316.
Saville Art
1920,199.
leather garment around their hips and leather nobleman, wears a breechcloth (the skirtlike 6. Francisco Javier Clavijero, The History of Mexico,
48
gloves covering their hands. Another double row of feathers around his hips seems to be a Collected from Spanish and Mexican Historians...,
page shows the Aztecs at the game of patolli: later addition) and holds a fan of multicolored 2 vols. (London, 1787), 424, n.a.; also Diego Duran,
"It is played," said Lopez de Gomara, "with feathers, and on his right fist carries a large Book of the Gods and Rites and the Ancient Calen-
dar, translated and edited by Fernando Horcasitas
52
broad or split beans, used like dice, which they green parrot. He also wears a necklace of red and Doris Heyden (Norman, Oklahoma, 1971), esp.
shake between their hands and cast upon a mat, beads and, like most of the Indians sketched by 383-411. See Alfonso Caso, "Calendrical Systems of
or upon the ground, where a grid has been Weiditz, has stones set into his nose, cheeks, Central Mexico/ Handbook of Middle American
7
traced. They put pebbles down to mark the and chin, a mutilation that shocked almost Indians 11,1 (1921), 333-348.
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