Page 543 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

357 lent, matricidal daughter, who was slain and dis- polish. The deity's face occupies almost the whole
HEAD OF COYOLXAUHQUI membered by her half-brother Huitzilopochtli, front of the piece. Her closed eyelids show that
the
of war (Nicholson 1983, 49), in
sun
the
cheeks, incised on
she is dead. The bells on her
Aztecs' extraordinary myth explaining the birth top with a cross-and-four-dots motif that was a
Aztec
green porphyry of the sun (see Coe essay in this catalogue). sign for gold among the Aztecs, are her principal
l
2
3
8ox8$x 68 (ii /2 x 33 /4 x 26 / 4) In this masterpiece the Aztec artists concretized ornament and give meaning to her name Coyol-
the symbolism of the goddess in a dense greenish xauhqui ("painted with bells"). Her enormous
CNCA—INAH—MEX, Museo National de stone, which when finished takes an exceptional earrings are circular disks with triangular pen-
Antropologia, Mexico City dants, which also adorn her nose and cover her
mouth. These symbolize rays of light and indicate
This colossal sculpture was discovered in 1830 in that she is the moon, the luminous star of the
the basement of the old convent of Santa Teresa, night.
which is located near the National Palace of The feather headdress resembles an enormous
Mexico City. On learning of its discovery, a well- flower with an open corolla. A tuft of long feath-
known historian of the time, Don Carlos Maria de ers hanging to the side forms the characteristic
Bustamente, convinced the nuns to give it to the adornment for outstanding warriors. Small circu-
Museo Nacional, where it remains part of this lar feathers over the whole head identify military
institution's collection. It was not until the turn prisoners who would be sacrificed.
of the century, however, that it was correctly On the base of the sculpture, in fine relief, the
identified by Eduard Seler as the head of the artists represented currents of water and fire,
moon goddess Coyolxauhqui, Coatlicue's malevo- cat. 357, view of underside which when mixed symbolized burnt water, the
life-giving blood of the universe, the precious
liquid that feeds the sun and the earth. Also on
the base is the calendar date, i Rabbit, that is
directly associated with the symbol of this god-
dess and other deities of darkness and the earth.
F.S. and M.D.C.

358
TONATIUH

Aztec
volcanic stone
3
30 (n / 4)
Museum fur Volkerkunde, Basel

This young god sits with crossed arms resting on
drawn-up knees; disks with raised central bosses
are found on the pillbox-like headgear and on
decorative bands around the lower legs. The iden-
tity of the youthful deity is given by the feather-
surrounded device placed on his back: this is the
familiar sun disk with solar rays, marked by the
sign for the fifth sun, 4 Ollin.
It is thus virtually certain that this is Tonatiuh,
the vibrant, youthful solar deity worshipped in
central Mexico long before some of his functions
were usurped by the Aztec tutelary god Huitzilo-
pochtli. A directly comparable image appears on
page 71 of the Codex Borgia: Tonatiuh, his face
and body painted red, with an identical headband
and with the solar disk on his back, is enthroned
with knees drawn up. He receives the blood from
a beheaded quail. To complete the identification
in the drawing, there is a 4 Ollin sign below
the throne.
This sculpture may be the only three-dimen-
sional carving of Tonatiuh to have survived the
conquest; his cult may never have been a particu-
larly popular one. On the other hand, statues of

542 CIRCA 1492