COLLECTION NAME:
JCB Archive of Early American Images
Accession number:
07639
Record number:
07639-3
JCB call number:
B724 S687h / 2-SIZE
Image title:
The great Temple of Mexico.
Creator 1:
J. Clark
Creator 1 role:
Sc.
Place image published:
[London]
Image publisher:
[T. Woodward ... J. Hooker ... J. Peele]
Image date:
1723
Image function:
fold-out plate; following p. 72
Technique:
engraving
Image dimension height:
19.8 cm.
Image dimension width:
26.8 cm.
Page dimension height:
34.5 cm.
Page dimension width:
44 cm.
Materials medium:
ink
Materials support:
paper
Languages:
English
Description:
Bird's-eye view of the main temple [the Templo mayor] of Mexico City. The temple is encircled by a wall with serpents or snakes carved on it and two sanctuaries on the top before which priests sacrifice a victim. A body is tossed down the stairs. Dancers celebrate before the temple within the wall. In foreground is a skull rack or tzompantli and native Americans with bows and arrows wearing feathered headdresses and garments.
Source creator:
Solís, Antonio de, 1610-1686
Source Title:
[Historia de la conquista de Mexico. English] ... Done into English ... By Thomas Townsend Esq;
Source place of publication:
London
Source publisher:
Printed for T. Woodward at the Half-Moon, and J. Hooker at the Flower-de-Luce, both against St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleet-Street; and J. Peele at Locke's-Head in Pater-Noster-Row.
Source date:
M.DCC.XXIV [1724]
notes:
The great temple at Tenochtitlan was surmounted by two sanctuaries--the one on the left dedicated to Tlaloc, the one on the right to Huitzilopochtli. Huitzilopochtli, whose name means "Blue hummingbird on the left," was the Aztec god of the sun and war. The turquoise or fire serpent (xiuhcoatl) was his mystical weapon. Tlaloc, the god of rain and agriculture, was of pre-Aztec, or Toltec, origin. A coatepantli or wall made of sculpted serpents often surrounds Aztec temples. The tzompantli would hold the skulls of sacrificial victims.
Time Period:
1701-1750
Subject matter:
conjurer, sorcerer, shaman
Provenance/Donor:
Acquired before 1870.
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:
Indians of Mexico--Rites and ceremonies
Subject headings:
Mexico--History--Conquest, 1517-1540