Turquois mosaic art in ancient Mexico

by Marshall H. Saville

OBJECTS DECORATED WITH MOSAIC

In the ancient chronicles are found many descriptions of the employment of mosaic-work decoration in the central Mexican region. From the writings of Sahagun and others it is clearly evident that many such decorated objects were made for and were used as parts of the paraphernalia with which great idols of wood or of stone representing various deities were adorned for the frequent religious festivals which occurred at stated intervals. The rulers and the priests and members of the so-called nobility used such objects on these occasions. The major employment of the mosaic art seems to have been for the adornment of objects or ornaments used ceremonially, such as crowns or head-bands, helmets, masks, shields, scepters, ear-ornaments, nose-ornaments, breast-plates, bracelets, and anklets. The material on which the mosaic incrustation was placed was chiefly wood, but gold, shell, bone, and stone were also used. Small figures of the gods, either in human or in animal form, as well as musical instruments, were thus adorned. There are also indications that pottery vessels were sometimes decorated by embedding turquois in the clay.

Unfortunately we still possess only scant knowledge of the various objects ornamented in this manner. In the data obtained from the early chronicles there is abundant evidence that, in the central plateau of Mexico during the period immediately preceding the Spanish conquest, the art was highly developed. Visual evidence is at hand in the few beautiful examples now in European museums, specimens which were sent across the water by Cortés during the earliest period of the conquest, between the years 1518 and 1525.

A few references from some of the early writers regarding the use of turquois mosaic by the Aztecs will be presented.

PL. XII

MASK OF WOOD (FRAGMENT) WITH MOSAIC DECORATION

MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN HEYE FOUNDATION, NEW YORK

Stone idols were often decorated with mosaic incrustations. Andrés de Tapia describes an idol probably representing Huitzilopochtli, showing this type of embellishment, in the great temple at Tenochtitlan. Tapia’s account is worthy of attention, for he was one of the captains of Cortés, and took a prominent part in the capture of the capital of Montezuma. He writes:

There were two idols on two pedestals, each one of the bulk of an ox; the pedestals measured a yard in height, and above these (were) two idols, each one almost three yards in height, of polished grain: and the stone was covered over with nacre, which is the shell in which pearls are created, and over this (mother-of-pearl), fastened with bitumen after the manner of paste, were (set in) many jewels of gold, and men, snakes, birds, and histories (hieroglyphs), made of small and large turquoises, of emeralds and amethysts, so that all the mother-of-pearl was covered, except in some places where they left it (uncovered) so as to make work with the stones. These idols had plump snakes of gold (as) girdles, and for collars each (one had) ten or twelve hearts made of gold, and for the face a mask of gold and eyes of mirror (obsidian or iron pyrites), and they had another face in the back of the head like the head of a man without flesh.[58]

Pomar describes the idol of Huitzilopochtli as of wood, “having on the breast a jewel of turquoises set in gold, with some gold bells (hanging), and on the face (were) two stripes of gold and two of turquoises, very beautifully wrought and placed.”[59]

In describing this idol, Bernal Díaz writes that “the whole body was covered with precious stones, and gold and pearls, and with seed pearls stuck on with a paste that they make in this country out of a sort of root, and all the body and head was covered with it, and the body was girdled by great snakes made of gold and precious stones.” He goes on to mention another idol close to it, which held “a short lance and a shield richly decorated with gold and stones.”[60]

Concerning the ancestral treasure of the Aztecan kings which Montezuma inherited from his father Axayacatl, finally exacted by Cortés from the unfortunate ruler, Bernal Díaz describes “three blowguns with their pellet molds and their coverings of jewels and pearls, and pictures in feathers of little birds covered with pearl shell, and other birds, all of great value.[61]

Tezozomoc, in describing the great sacrifices offered to the god Huitzilopochtli in honor of the coronation of Montezuma, and the presents brought by neighboring chiefs and lords as tributes from the various towns under their jurisdiction, writes:

In the center of the great square there was a building (xacal) where was the teponaztli, and the great tlapanhuehuetl with which they made music. On the xacal was the device of the Mexican arms with a small peñula (rock?) of painted paper, like a natural rock, with a great cactus (tuna) on it, and on the cactus a royal eagle having in its claws a great mangled snake, and the eagle had a crown of doubled or twisted paper very well (made) and gilded, and (with) very rich stone mosaic-work round about it, in the Mexican custom called teocuitla amayxcuatzolli.[62]

At this festival Montezuma had the king of Aculhuacan attired in special raiment, which Tezozomoc describes as “a netted mantle with much rich stonework in the knots of the mantle, and with little gold bells hanging from the fringe.[63]

According to Sahagun, Xiuhtecutli, god of fire, wore “earrings in the holes of the ears worked with mosaics of turquois.... In his left hand he carried a shield with five greenstones called chalchihuite, placed like a cross on a round gold plate, which nearly covered the whole of the shield.”[64]

PL. XIII

MASK OF WOOD WITH MOSAIC DECORATION

MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN HEYE FOUNDATION, NEW YORK

Chalchihuitlicue, goddess of water, fountains, and rivers, wore earrings of turquois fashioned in mosaic-work. In describing the idol of Quetzalcoatl, Sahagun says that, for ceremonial occasions, ear-ornaments of turquois mosaic were placed on it, and “in the right hand was placed a scepter like a bishop’s crosier or staff, the upper part crooked like a bishop’s staff, and wrought with stone mosaic-work.” In treating of the presents sent to Cortés by Montezuma we have already given the description of the paraphernalia pertaining to this deity. This scepter is there described as having “the crook like the head of a snake turned around or coiled.” In the codices the god or his priest is represented with this staff with a crook, but the serpent-headed scepter is shown by Sahagun (manuscript of the Real Palacio, Madrid, estampa VII, fig. 1) as part of the ceremonial outfit of Huitzilopochtli (fig. 5). The body of the serpent is painted blue, representing the scales done in turquois mosaic.

Fig. 5

In describing the god Tezcatlipoca, Pomar states that he was represented with “a mask with three stripes (vetas) of espejuelo (either transparent lamellated gypsum [selenite], or more probably obsidian), and two of gold, which crossed over the face.”[65] The idol was fashioned from wood in the figure of a man. Espejuelo, he states, was a kind of shining metal called tezcapoctli.

In the invocation to the god Paynal, which has been preserved to us in the original Mexican tongue by Sahagun, is the strophe, “yxiuh chimal, xiuhtica tlatzaqualli chimalli imax mani,” which has been translated by Seler, “the blue shield, covered with the turquois mosaic, hangs from his arm ... he carries the (blue mosaic) shield.”[66] This chapter was copied by Seler from the manuscript in the Real Palacio, Madrid. In the reproduction of the pictorial part of the manuscript published in colors by Troncoso, we find the representation of this deity, in which the mosaic shield is graphically drawn and painted blue (see our fig. 70, p. 17). Sahagun (book 1, chap. 2) briefly describes “this god called Paynal, who was a kind of under-captain of Huitzilopochtli.” He is said to have been a man adored as a god.

The Anonymous Conqueror affords valuable information regarding the use of shields. He says:

They use shields of various kinds, made of thick reeds which grow in that country, interwoven with cotton of double thickness, and they cover them with precious stones (turquois mosaic-work) and round plates of gold, which make them so strong that nothing can go through them, unless from a good crossbow. Some arrows, it is true, pierced them, but could do no harm. And because some of these shields have been seen in Spain, I say that they are not of the kind borne in war, but only those used in the festivals and dances which they are accustomed to have.[67]

In his chapter devoted to a consideration of “the finery that the lords used in their dances,” Sahagun mentions “bracelets of mosaic-work made of turquoises,” and also “masks worked in mosaic, and (having) false hair such as they now use, and some plumes of gold which came out of the masks.” He further describes the costumes, as follows:

They also wear attached to the wrists thick bands of black leather made soft with balsam, and decorated with a large bead of chalchihuitl or other precious stone. They also wore labrets of chalchihuitl set in gold, placed through the flesh, although they do not have this custom now. They also have these ornaments made of large rock-crystals, with blue feathers set in them, which give them the appearance of sapphires. They wear also many other precious stones protruding through openings made in the lower lip. The noses of the great lords are also pierced, and they wear in the openings fine turquoises and other precious stones, one on each side. They wear also some strings of precious stones around the neck; they wear a disc of gold hanging from a collar, and in the middle of it a plain precious stone, and around the circumference some pendants of pearls. They use bracelets of mosaic-work made of turquois, with some rich feathers which come out from them higher than the head, and bordered with rich plumes and gold, and some bands of gold which rise with the feathers.[68]

PL. XIV

MASK OF WOOD WITH MOSAIC DECORATION

MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN HEYE FOUNDATION. NEW YORK

The distinctive head-band or crown worn by the Mexican rulers is mentioned by numerous early writers and illustrated in many codices. It was known as the xiuhtzolli or xiuhuitzontli, and was called also copilli. We have selected for illustration (fig. 6) two examples from the codices. The first (a) is taken from the Sahagun manuscript of the Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid (estampa XVII). This page contains pictures of a number of Aztecan rulers, all represented with the turquois-mosaic crown painted blue. Moreover, the hieroglyphic name of Montezuma, here placed above his head, is a mosaic crown. The crown itself was of gold, on which the turquois mosaic was placed. The other example (b) is from the Tribute Roll of Montezuma (Peñafiel edition, pl. XIX). It is part of the hieroglyph for the place-name Tecmilco, signifying “the lands of the royal crown,” the combination being the crown painted blue resting on the sign for cultivated land. Our figure shows a plain gold crown, but it is painted blue in the codex.

a Fig. 6 b

A copper crown from Tenango, State of Mexico, has been figured by Peñafiel. It is properly a head-band with a triangular projection with rounded top which rose from the forehead, and was probably worn by a warrior or sub-chief.[69] In this work Peñafiel illustrates the mask in Rome (see our pl. VII), and states that the upper part is a xiuhhuitzolli, or turquois-mosaic crown. We will discuss this point later. Many years ago, in Mexico, the writer heard of a gold copilli as having been found in the Matlaltzincan region near Toluca, but was never able to verify the story. A few extracts from the chroniclers, relating to these golden crowns with turquois mosaic, follow.

In the Codex Cozcatzin the Aztec king Axayacatl is represented with the xiuhuitzontli, the turquois mosaic-work head-band.[70]

In the selection of Ahuitzotl as king, Tezozomoc writes:

They put on him the crown which was blue, of rich stone mosaic-work, (in shape) like a half miter called xiuhtzolli (or xihuitzolli), and also placed on him, among other things, a netted mantle strewn with small stonework. This formed part of his costume when he went to the temple of Huitzilopochtli to worship. When adored by neighboring subjugated tribes he wore a crown of gold (adorned) with much stone mosaic-work of a half miter shape, and on the left shoulder was put a sash called matemacatl which was all gilded and enameled with fine stone mosaic-work, which was also called teocuitla cozehuatl, as we now speak of a shoe-ribbon, and on the foot was placed something like an anklet of acero [sic] strewn with emerald stones, all gilded.[71]

Duran states that among the offerings buried with the Aztec king Ahuitzotl were “crowns of the fashion that they used, of gold and of stone mosaic-work.”[72]

It is related by Tezozomoc that after the death of Netzahualpilli, king of Texcoco, Montezuma assembled the senate of Aculhuacan in order to select a new king. The choice fell on the fifth son, Quetzalacxoyatl. In the ceremony of investiture they placed on him “the blue crown or forehead-band decorated with stone mosaic-work.”[73]

The Anonymous Conqueror writes:

To guard the head, they carry things like the heads of serpents, tigers, lions, or wolves with open jaws, and the head of the man is inside the head of the creature as if it was being devoured. They are of wood covered over with feathers and with jewels of gold and precious stones, which is a wonderful sight.[74]

From Alonso de Molina’s Vocabulario Mexicano (Mexico, 1555, reprinted 1571) we are able to interpret the Nahuan words which occur in the chronicles in connection with the use of turquois in the decoration of various objects. The following are some of the more common: nacochtli, ear-plugs; tentetl, labret; yacaxuitl, nose-ornament; copilli, crown; xiuhxayacatl, mask of turquois mosaic; xayacatl, mask; cactli, sandal; tilmatl, mantle; amaneahapantli, mantle for lords richly wrought; teopixcatla-quemitl, vestment of priests; ecaceuaztli, fan; chimalli, shield; teteotl, stone idol; tequacuilli, large stone idol or statue; xiuitl, turquois; tlaquauac xiuitl, hard turquois; xiuhtomolli, turquois; omichicauaztli, bone musical instrument; ayacachtli, rattle.

PL. XV

MASK OF WOOD (FRAGMENT) WITH MOSAIC DECORATION

MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN HEYE FOUNDATION, NEW YORK