Chasing Nazahualcoyotl's Portrait
Professor Patrick Hajovsky
Tuesday October 4, 11:30-12:00
Fine Arts Building, Room 235
Professor Patrick Hajovsky
Tuesday October 4, 11:30-12:00
Fine Arts Building, Room 235
Abstract:
The image above, from Codex Ixtlilxochitl (ca. 1579) is one of the only surviving portraits of the important Aztec king, Nezahualcoyotl (1403-73), who ruled the city of Texcoco, one of the principal cities of the Aztec Triple Alliance. This portrait, while important to indigenous claims upon their noble heritage in the Spanish colonial system, represents a somewhat different conception of the king than had it been produced for an Aztec audience, both in the medium in which he is illustrated (a manuscript illustration) as well as the manner (as an historical agent). Though true Aztec portraits of the king are known to have existed, they only survive by description, since they were destroyed during early anti-idolatry campaigns.
My current research attempts to reconstruct the limits and expectations of Aztec portraiture by researching indigenous notions of the body as described in Nahuatl texts, to show that the lost sculpture of Nezahualcoyotl relied more heavily on hieroglyphic inscriptions and ritual performance than on creating a "lifelike" portrait.
The image above, from Codex Ixtlilxochitl (ca. 1579) is one of the only surviving portraits of the important Aztec king, Nezahualcoyotl (1403-73), who ruled the city of Texcoco, one of the principal cities of the Aztec Triple Alliance. This portrait, while important to indigenous claims upon their noble heritage in the Spanish colonial system, represents a somewhat different conception of the king than had it been produced for an Aztec audience, both in the medium in which he is illustrated (a manuscript illustration) as well as the manner (as an historical agent). Though true Aztec portraits of the king are known to have existed, they only survive by description, since they were destroyed during early anti-idolatry campaigns.
My current research attempts to reconstruct the limits and expectations of Aztec portraiture by researching indigenous notions of the body as described in Nahuatl texts, to show that the lost sculpture of Nezahualcoyotl relied more heavily on hieroglyphic inscriptions and ritual performance than on creating a "lifelike" portrait.
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