Turquois mosaic art in ancient Mexico

by Marshall H. Saville

Two guariques of blue stones set in gold, each having eight pendants of the same.

A mask of stone mosaic-work.

In the work of Gomara, printed in 1553, appears also an extended account of this barter.[10]

Seler[11] and Lehmann[12] believe that most of the mosaic objects “apparently came from the eastern provinces, i.e., Tabasco.” Relying on the authority of both Oviedo and Gomara, Lehmann further uses in his discussion the original Nahuatl text of Sahagun in the Florentine manuscript copied and translated by Seler. In this section of Sahagun’s work relating to the attributes of the Mexican deities occurs the paragraph, “In jtlatquj Quetzalcoatl coa-xaiacatl xiuhticatl achivalli, quetzalapanecaiotl,” which Lehmann renders, “The Quetzalcoatl dress, the snake-mask with turquois work, the feather ornament of the people of Quetzalapan (Tabasco).”[13] But there is no mention in early chronicles or on early maps of any town in this region bearing the name Quetzalapan, and Torquemada in giving an account of some of the wars of Montezuma writes that “during the twelfth year of his reign (which was in 1514), his armies set out for the land of the Chichimecas, and entered the Huaxteca, subduing those of Quetzalapan.”[14] Other places bearing the name Quetzalapan were in the present states of Morelos, Guerrero, and Colima.[15] In recounting the episode of the conquest of this town, Clavijero writes explicitly that “Montezuma sent out an army in 1512 to the north against the Quetzalapanecas and conquered them with but little loss.”[16] Hence the place mentioned by Sahagun would seem to have been in Vera Cruz, and probably the region of Huaxteca or Cuexteca, for the Aztecs had considerable communication with this territory.

Loot Obtained by Cortés, 1519-1525

But the treasures of native art secured by the Grijalva expedition were insignificant by comparison with the enormously valuable loot obtained the next year (1519) by Cortés. It is not necessary in this study of Mexican mosaics to enter into the details of the expedition which set out from Cuba to follow the discoveries of Grijalva and which resulted in the conquest of Mexico. This has been done many times, but in the main most weight is given to the writings of the Spanish participants and to the early chroniclers. We have already studied in considerable detail the accounts of the art objects sent to Spain by Cortés, as contained in these early writings, and especially the inventories which accompanied the shipments of objects sent to Europe by the conqueror. Let us quote here merely what we wrote in presenting a summary of the events that occurred when Cortés first landed on the coast of Vera Cruz.

After the arrival of the Spaniards on the coast of Vera Cruz, the Indians were not long in ignorance of the consuming thirst of the conquerors for gold. In order to placate the formidable strangers with childlike confidence that by giving them their wish the invasion of his dominions would be averted, Montezuma sent rich presents to Cortés through Tendile (Teuhtlile), governor of Cuetlaxtla (the modern Cotastla), which was then subject to the Aztecs. When all this treasure thus brought together was ready to be sent to Spain, with the report of the voyage, an inventory or list of the objects was drawn up and despatched with two special messengers, Alonso Portocarrero and Francisco de Montejo, who were charged to deliver the treasure to the King. These valuable gifts have been briefly described by several members of the expedition who saw them before they left Mexico, and on their receipt in Spain they were described by various other chroniclers.

From the inventory, which we translated, we select the items relating to objects ornamented with stone mosaic.

Item: two collars of gold and stone mosaic-work (precious stones)....

Another item: a box of a large piece of feather-work lined with leather, the colors seeming like martens, and fastened and placed in the said piece, and in the center (is) a large disc of gold, which weighed sixty ounces of gold, and a piece of blue stone mosaic-work a little reddish, and at the end of the piece another piece of colored feather-work that hangs from it.