COLLECTION NAME:
JCB Archive of Early American Images
Record
Accession number:
30289
Record number:
30289-95
JCB call number:
Codex Ind 2
Image title:
4a. El Tunal con el Aguila que hallaron en la laguna
Place image published:
[Mexico]
Image date:
[ca. 1585]
Image function:
plate; verso leaf 91
Technique:
painting
Image dimension height:
18.1 cm.
Image dimension width:
13.3
Page dimension height:
21 cm.
Page dimension width:
15.2 cm.
Materials medium:
watercolor
Materials support:
paper
Languages:
Spanish
Description:
Founding of Mexico City or Tenochtitlán. An eagle devours a bird while perched on a flowering cactus. The cactus grows from a rock in the middle of a lake. Footsteps of the Mexicans are shown approaching the base of the cactus. On the right is Tenoch (known from his glyph of a flowering cactus) who led the Aztecs to Tenochtitlán. On the left is Tochtzin, or Mexitzin (known from his glyph of a rabbit), from Calpan (known from the glyph of a house with a flag), Tenoch's co-ruler. The two rulers sit on basket-work thrones. At upper right is the symbol of Copil, son of Malinalxochitl, or five dots with crossed arrows, on a shield.
Source creator:
Tovar, Juan de, ca. 1546-ca. 1626
Source Title:
Historia de la benida de los yndios apoblar a Mexico de las partes remotas de Occidente los sucessos y perigrinaçiones del camino su gouierno, ydolos y templos dellos, ritos y cirimonias ... calandarios delos tiempos
Source place of publication:
Mexico
Source date:
ca. 1585
notes:
The Aztecs, guided by the prophecies of Huitzilopochtli (the god of the sun and war), ended their migration by building Tenochtitlán, on an island in a lake where an eagle held a snake perched on a flowering nopal cactus. The cactus grew, according to their mythology, from the heart of Copil, son of Huitzilopochtli's sister, which had been flung onto the island. His symbol of five dots represents the Aztec belief that the world was a flat surface divided into five directions (north, south, east, west and the center where their capital was located). The Tovar manuscript is divided into three sections. This second section of the manuscript--an illustrated history of the Aztecs--is essentially the same as the Codex Ramírez and forms the main body of the manuscript.
Time Period:
1492-1600
References:
Lafaye, J. Manuscript Tovar, p. 240-241
References exhibitions:
Danforth, S. Encountering the New World, Fig. 20
Provenance/Donor:
Acquired from the collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps in 1946.
Owner and copyright:
©John Carter Brown Library, Box 1894, Brown University, Providence, R.I. 02912
geographic area:
Spanish America
Subject Area:
Artifacts, industry, and human activities
Subject Area:
Indigenous peoples
Subject headings:
Mexico--History--To 1519
Subject headings:
Indians of Mexico
Subject headings:
Aztecs--Kings and rulers--Mythology
4a. El Tunal con el Aguila que hallaron en la laguna
