One of the most important gods for the Aztecs was Huitzilipotchli ( https://tinyurl.com/y99plajw ), Southern Hummingbird. He was god of the sun (although he actually superseded an older sun god,) of battle, warfare, and sacrifice. This image relates to the story of his birth. His mother, Coatlicue ( https://tinyurl.com/y7xedv7l ), "Serpent Skirt" was doing penance of the sacred Serpent Mountain when a ball of down feather fell from the sky. She tucked it into her bosom and continued sweeping. When she returned home the feathers had vanished and she was pregnant. Her four hundred sons and one daughter were outraged by what they perceived as scandalous behavior and attacked her. Several versions of what happened next tell of Huitzilipotchli's birth, either armed and full grown from the womb or, in other versions from the blood from his mother's decapitation. He drove the four hundred brothers back and they became the constellations. He killed and dismembered his sister before rising to join, and eventually become, the sun. The cult of Huitzilipotchli was the basis of the Aztec state and the need to nourish him with blood was the reason for Aztec military expansion.
Wikipedia entry for HuitzilipotchliChalchiutlique is a major water goddess. She is streams and waters running over the earth. The Aztec gods were not gods "OF" water, earth, sun, etc. They were the thing itself. When you see a stream or flowing water you are looking at Chalchiutlicue . When you see the sun you are looking at Huitzilipotchi. Here I saw her in the form of a river delta.
Wikipedia entry for ChalchiutlicueWhen the Spaniards first saw Tenochtitlan they were in awe of its beauty. Men who had seen Venice and Constantinople were stunned by the beauty and splendor of the palaces, temples, plazas, and public buildings many of which were spectacularly adorned with murals. In addition to the splendor and sophistication of the city the Spaniards were horrified by some of the manifestations of Aztec culture. Among these were the great skull racks .(Tzompantli) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzompantli ) In this piece I tried to capture both murals and skulls racks.
Wikipedia entry for TenochtitlanSources differ greatly on the God. He is the night, the dark, a smoking mirror. He is either the counterpart of Huitzilipotchi, or his enemy, or another form of Huitzilipotchli himself. He is the smoking mirror, and sometimes a wise person is described as a pierced smoking mirror.
Wikipedia entrgy for TexcatlipocaOne of the highest forms of art for the Aztec was poetry. In a society whose writing system could not record fine grammatical and poetic subleties poetry meant recitation and oration. The ruler of the empire was not called King or Emperor but rather First Speaker, showing how important poetry was. The Nahuatl (language of the Aztec and a great many other people) term for Art is "Lovely flowers, lovely songs." The god emerging from the flower is Xochipilli, The Flower Prince. He has his own piece in this series. The link below takes you to a page from Miguel León-Portilla's magisterial work, Aztec Thought and Culture
Lovely flowers, lovely songs.Not inspired by the Aztec but, rather by the Maya. For the Maya much of the spiritual world is located beneath the earth. Springs, caverns, and the sinkholes called Cenotes afford access to the realm of Xibalba. The journey to Xibabla to confront the Lords of Death is a major part of the Popul Vuh, a text of the K'iche' Maya of the Guatamalan highlands. Although there were many Mayan polities and cultural variants the main mythos was widespread. This piece imagines standing at the edge of the great deep cenotes into which the Maya threw sacrifices, both things and people. I've not yet had the opportunity to travel in Maya country but at least one friend who has done so widely took one look at this image and said, "That's a cenote." The link takes you to the Wikipedia entry for cenotes. Another, probably more intersting link takes you to the story of the Mayan hero twins to confront the Lords of Death in Xibalba. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Hero_Twins )
Link to the Wikipedia entry on cenotes.Ītzpāpālōtl, Obsidian Butterfly is a skeletal warrior goddess who rules over a paradise for the victims of infant mortality. Women who died in childbirth were seen as the equivalent of warriors who died in battle and they had a special place accompanying the sun. Butterlies, of course, are delicate and ephemeral. Obsidian is hard, brittle, and takes such a sharp edge that it still used in certain surgical tools. Obsidian Butterfly is soft, delicate, sharp and cutting. She's very Aztec.
Obsidian Butterly,ĪtzpāpālōtlAnother piece inspired by the Mayan view of the underworld, Xibalba, which is entered through caves and cenotes.
The Mayan underworld, XibalbaOne of the most perplexing themes in Aztec lore is the smoking mirror. Mirrors of polished obsidian played an important role in the religious imagery of the Aztecs. The god Texcatlicopca, Lord of the Night and darkness is often called Smoking Mirror. A wise man is described as being a pierced obsidian mirror. The strangeness of this imagery can’t help but remind one of the passage in Corinthians, “For now we see as though a glass darkly; but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
Smoking MirrorsXochipilli means Flower Prince or Flower Child. He is the god of flowers, art, song, beauty, and ecstatic trance. He is pictured (as in the sculpture used here) as seated on a throne adorned by psychoactive plants included peyote.
Wikipedia entry for XochipilliProbably the most long-lasting god of MesoAmerica is the Rain God. Known by many names in different cultures he has been represented with characteristic features from the very earliest times. Whenever you see a deity with huge goggle eyes, perfectly circular, or whenever you see a seemingly abstract geometrical pattern featuring two large circles close together you are almost certainly looking at a representation of the god of rain. This piece emerged from my working on a snapshot of the Michoacan landscape that I took from the car window with my phone. Just as I realized that my playing with the photo was evoking the feeling of a storm the two circles on the left took form and I realized that this piece was about Tlaloc. During the rainy season here in the Mexican highlands it's very easy to get the feeling that giant beings are dancing right over your head to bring life and fertility back to the dry soil that has been without rain for eight or nine months.
Wikipedia entry for TlalocIt’s hard to walk more than a block or two (at least in my town) without encountering an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. She’s on wall paintings, in tiles, in bas-relief sculptures… everywhere you look. She is the mother of Mexico. But Mexico has another mother as well. The ancient mother goddess took many forms, in fact, pretty much any goddess I’ve read about is some aspect of the Great Mother Goddess. Guadalupe appeared to the Indian peasant Juan Diego on the very hill where the Mother Goddess had a major worship site and told him to build her a shrine. And so, today, at the very site where their ancestors worshiped Tonantzin (Honored Mother) Mexicans pray to Guadalupe. In this piece I’ve used an image of Coatlicue (Serpent Skirts) along with one of Guadalupe. Guadalupe’s image never changes.. part of her mystery is that when she appeared to Juan Diego her image, the one that is now ubiquitous, was imprinted on his cloak. Coatlicue, on the other hand has a number of images. Here I’ve used one in which she appears in a more or less anthropomorphic form. The site builder I'm using only allows for one external link so I'm going to put links to Mexico's two mothers here instead. I would hardly want to pick one over the other! COATLICUE... Serpent Skirt. https://www.ancient.eu/Coatlicue/ AND NEXT IS THE LINK FOR GUADALUPE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Guadalupe Thanks to Robert Siegleman for the photo that was used in making this image.
I've merged two deities here, as the Aztec themselves were wont to do. Here we see a mask of Tlaloc, the rain god with the body of a flying serpent, who is usually Quetzalcoatl. The ancients blended all their gods so I don't see why I can't though I don't know if Tlaloc was ever portrayed this way.
An early piece that I did when I was barely into studying the gods of Ancient Mexico. I was thinking of the swirling skirts of Mexican folk dances that you often see at fiestas of various sorts here. I think I used the face of a Mayan god as part of the brush that painted the swirling skirts. At least that's what I see when I look at it but I really don't remember. Maybe I just painted the skirts and the god inserted themself. Staranger things have happened.
Huehueteotl is the god of beginnings and endings. He is the old fire that is dying and the new fire that is being born. He presides over the caloric cycle of 52 years. At the end of each 52-year cycle all fires are extinguished, a victim is sacrificed and a new fire is lit. He is not often depicted in Aztec art, but when he does he is always like a wizened old man. When you see a brazier used to burn copal incense and it is in the shape of a bowl being carried on the head of an old man you are looking at Huehuetetol. This piece was made to celebrate the completion of the 52-year cycle of a much-loved figure in a nearby town.
Wikipedia entry for HuehueteotlThere are a few non-Aztec inspired images in this collection. This one is Olmec. The Olmec were the first civilization to appear in Mexico, emerging from a older tradition of villages and small settlements. They first appear around 1600 BCE in the tropical gulf coasts of Vera Cruz and Tabasco and vanished sometime around 400 BCE or perhaps a bit later. While they had a few glyphs they did not have a full writing system and what is known about their beliefs is largely inferred from their surviving artworks. Since they lived in the swampy tropical lowlands little has survived beyond stone works, ceramics, and architecture. They had a unique style and are probably best known for their giant realistic heads carved in basalt which clearly are portraits of distinct invidividuals. Seventeen such heads have been found some of which are over three meters tall. The Olmec are often considered the Mother Civilization of Mexico since the building of pyramids, the development of the calendar, the sacred ballgame found in all Mexican cultures, and the beginnings of writing can all be traced to them. They had a reputation that endures to this day as great shamans and wizards. One of the recurrent themes in their art is the so-called Werejaguar. Masks and carvings such as the one seen here show the shaman in the process of transforming into a sacred jaguar.
Not an Aztec deity this time, but one from the Zapotec people of Oaxaca, a civilization much older than the Aztec. Bats are in important theme in the culture of the ancient Zapotec. In addition to their obvious connections to the night, caves, and by extension death, bats were protective forces associated with the harvest. Recent studies show that bats control some of the nastiest pests of the corn crop. And so, another MesoAmerican deity...darkness, night, death, protection of the corn and life
