Tenochtitlan in Sixteenth-Century Native Pictorials (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Tenochtitlan in Sixteenth-Century Native Pictorials
Author: John F. López
Abstract: In 1524, the German printer and book dealer, Frederick Peypus, published the Nuremberg Map and Hernán Cortés’ Second Letter under the title Praeclara Ferdinandi Cortesii de Nova Maris Oceani Hispania Narratio Sacratissio ac. Inuictissimo Carolo Romanorum Imperatori Semper Augusto. Acting as a theatrical space for historical events and Cortés’ chivalric fantasies of conquest, the map’s intended effect was to capture European sensibilities, drawing the viewer into an unimaginable world across a distant ocean, ultimately bringing the Aztec and Tenochtitlan into the European cultural imagination. Yet, the Nuremberg Map was not the only sixteenth-century image produced of Tenochtitlan for a European audience. Early modern indigenous artists also took line and color to page to offer their own interpretation about the Aztec capital. Study of indigenous pictorials not only suggest different epistemes at work from their European counterpart but equally as important, they inscribe, in picture, the underlying conceptions of Tenochtitlan, its geographic setting, and its most iconic feature: water.
Date: 05/21/2019

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