Page 572 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

solar calendar including a correlation with the
Christian calendar, illustrated by a hand different
from the one in the second part. The entire man-
uscript is holograph, in the hand of Tovar.
Figure 17, one of thirty-two accompanying the
second part, is spread across two facing pages and
is captioned "The Mexicans' manner of dancing/'
It shows a large, counterclockwise dance of men,
with the music provided by a horizontal drum
(teponaztli) and a vertical drum (huehuetl) (cats.
378, 379). All the participants appear to be of very
high rank, including the musicians who wear the
headdress-insignia of the emperor on their shoul-
ders. Each of the dancers is attired in a cloak
knotted at the shoulder and carries a bouquet in
one hand and a device topped with feathers in the
other. These are very similar to the objects carried
by Nezahualpilli in the Codex Ixtlilxochitl (see
cat. 373).
Lafaye has suggested that this is the dance that
took place in the month Toxcatl (1972, 273).
However, the presence among the dancers of a
jaguar knight and an eagle knight raises the possi-
bility that this might be part of the rites for Tla-
caxipehualiztli, held in honor of the god Xipe
Totec; during these festivities these warriors not
only engaged in gladiatorial sacrifices, but also
participated in such dances. M.D.C.

headdress and necklace are probably Brazilian, structed : in the upper half are the sun and five
specifically Tupinamba. So is the strange orna- zones of heaven, while below are the moon and
ment over the right shoulder, which seems to be a various figures.
Tupinamba headdress made of a cotton bonnet For the second drawing Burgkmair dressed a
405 with feathers hanging down at the back (Metraux black bearded man with the same Indian artifacts.
however,
the weapon the man holds
Hans Burgkmair 1928,130-136; Colin 1988, 336). The feather This time, ax with a hook at its end. Although no
skirt, which is open on one side, is an item of
is a battle
Augsburg, 1473-1531 clothing that does not seem to have existed in specimen with a carved head is known today, the
Two COSTUME STUDIES America. Tupinambas, in fact, wore little except "blade" is clearly an anchor-ax, a well-known
for long feather cloaks at festivals (see cat. 408). South American type (see Ryden 1937 for Brazil-
c. 1519-1525 In this case, Burgkmair, probably relying to some ian anchor axes and, for clubs in early European
pen and ink with washes on paper extent on the depictions of Indians found in collections, Hochstetter 1885, 99-104, pi. v, and
broadsheets and book illustrations, used either a Feest 1985, 241-242). The head cannot be, as is
4O5A: BLACK YOUTH HOLDING A CLUB AND A
SHIELD Tupinamba feather cloak or an Aztec feather head- sometimes claimed, a Jivaro shrunken-head
23 .5 X l6 (^/4 X 6 /4J dress to cover the nudity of his "Indian/' The war (tsanta); such heads were distinguished by long
2
club is probably Mexican, although no extant white cotton threads hanging from the lips and
4058: BLACK YOUTH HOLDING AN Ax weapon provides an exact parallel. The mosaic often by red and yellow toucan-breast feathers
3
l
24 x 16.1 ($ /8 x 6 /4) shield, with a leather border from which feathers hanging from the ears (Harner 1972, 187-193). In
references: Halm 1962, 125-126, 161, figs. 62, 63 hang, is more clearly of Aztec origin. It can be addition, shrunken heads were worn round the
Honour in Cleveland 1975, 14, fig. $b; Feest 1984,
11; Rowlands 1988, 187-188, nos. i$8(a) and i^8(b) f identified with the famous wooden shield now in neck. In any case, Jivaro Indians came into contact
pi. xxiii; Colin 1988, 336-337, nos. M.6, the Museum fur Volkerkunde, Vienna (Feest with the European invaders only in 1549, when
fig. 14, and M.J, ig. 15 1984,11), which may be one of the shields given the Spaniard Hernan de Benavente came down
f
by Motecuhzoma to Hernan Cortes and sent by from the Andes and reached the confluence of the
The Trustees of the British Museum, London him to Charles v (Saville 1922, 71-75, pis. xxi- Rio Upano and the Rio Paute. J.M.M.
xxn; Nowotny 1960, 38-41, pis. 4-7). In the
Hans Burgkmair, like Diirer, never saw a native sixteenth-century Vienna inventory these are
American. In these two drawings Burgkmair described as having "pieces of colored featherwork
posed models with exotic artifacts. His "Indians' 7 hanging round the outside of them" (Cortes 1986,
are blacks and one is even bearded, whereas 43; see also Saville 1922,10). The Vienna shield
American natives did not tolerate hair on their was recorded in the Kunstkammer in Schloss
bodies. Ambras in 1596. As late as 1730 it still had a
The warrior of the first drawing is shown in leather border to which the feathers must have
contrapposto, a typical classical pose in which the been attached. Although the shield has lost many
weight of the body rests on one foot. The feather of its tesserae, the iconography can still be recon-

THE AMERICAS 571