COLLECTION NAME:
JCB Archive of Early American Images
Accession number:
29976
Record number:
29976-9
JCB call number:
J688 H252t / 2-SIZE
Image title:
[Huitzilopochtli, Aztec idol or god]
Place image published:
[Hamburg]
Image publisher:
[Thomas von Wiering]
Image date:
[1688]
Image function:
illustration; p. 103 (first count)
Technique:
woodcut
Image dimension height:
19.1 cm.
Image dimension width:
13.8 cm.
Page dimension height:
33.7 cm.
Page dimension width:
20. 7 cm.
Materials medium:
ink
Materials support:
paper
Description:
Huitzilopochtli, an idol or god shown as a devil with wings, a face on his stomach, and cloven hooves, stands on an altar decorated with military matériel such as spears, shields, and feathered headdresses. In one hand he holds a pole, in the other a shield with five feathers on it.
Source creator:
Happel, Eberhard Werner, 1647-169
Source Title:
Thesaurus exoticorum. Oder eine mit aussländischen Raritäten und Geschichten wohlversehene Schatz-Kammer fürstellend die asiatische, africanische und americanische Nationes ...
Source place of publication:
Hamburg
Source publisher:
Gedruckt und Verlegt durch Thomas von Wiering Buchdrucker und Formschneider; sind auch zu bekommen in Franckfurth bey Zacharias Herteln
Source date:
1688
notes:
Huitzilopochtli or Huitziláihuitl, an Aztec god symbolized by the hummingbird, was the god of the sun and war. Text describes the statue as being seated on a litter painted blue with serpents' heads at the end of the poles. The statue held a serpent in one hand and a shield with five feathers on it in the other. Its head was crowned with feathers. This image is derived from Arnoldus Montanus, De Nieuwe en onbekende Weereld, Amsterdam, 1671 (cf. 01631-16). A prolific writer (mostly of novels), Happel here describes a variety of exotic peoples at the border of Europe. His principal focus is on Islamic peoples, but he does include indigenous peoples of the Americas.
Time Period:
1651-1700
Provenance/Donor:
Acquired in 1947.
Owner and copyright:
©John Carter Brown Library, Box 1894, Brown University, Providence, R.I. 02912
geographic area:
Spanish America
Subject Area:
Indigenous peoples
Subject headings:
Aztec gods--Mexico
Subject headings:
Aztec mythology
Subject headings:
Aztecs--Religion
- Active Media Group: