226 RES 42 AUTUMN 2002

a t

Figure 1. Otomi catechism, seventeenth century, Paris, BNF, Fonds Mexicain, n. 76, f.
courtesy of BNF). a. Trinity (trinidad) under the tripartite globe; b. Holy Spirit (esp?ritu
tropical bird.
 Plumes of sacrifice

Transformations in sixteenth-century Mexican feather art

ALESSANDRA RUSSO

"They fitted on him a paper crown adorned with feathers interpret a bright red and green feathered bird as a
called anecuiotl.
rendering of the Holy Spirit? And in making this
On his feather headdress stood a knife also made by connection between image and concept, what
feathers, half of it being blood colored."
additional interpretations did they import?
The preparation of the sacrificial victim,
Similar questions concerning the heterogeneous
Florentine Codex, bk. 2, ch. 24.
nature of the image had already arisen during the study
In the middle of the seventeenth century a group of of a feather mosaic, conserved today in Mexico at
Otomi Indians, looking through a sequence of images in Tepotzotlan, which depicts the Salvator Mundi (see fig.
a pictorial catechism, came across a multicolored bird 2).2 It was the discovery of the pictorial catechism
ringed with a golden halo perched upon a bell (see fig. depicting a tropical Holy Spirit that in some sense led to
1b).1 The legend beneath the image, esp?ritu santo, a deeper understanding of the Salvator Mundi mosaic as
clarifies that the bird was to be understood as a well as of the feather art of New Spain.
rendering of the Holy Spirit. But in accordance with the Few aspects of pre-Hispanic culture have exhibited
goal of pictorial catechisms, the Otomi Indians would the endurance of postconquest featherwork.3 The
have been able to translate the image into words by Salvator Mundi of Tepotzotlan dates from about the
looking at the picture alone, before referring to the middle of the sixteenth century and probably served a
written legend. How was it possible for the Otomi to devotional purpose in the rather image-barren convents
of New Spain.4 It is one of the rare images created by
Note: This article grew out of a presentation in the seminar of Carlo amanteca, the featherworkers, that did not get shipped
Severi at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. I across the Atlantic to become part of a European
would like to thank him and Elena Isabel Estrada de Gerlero, Diana collection. After the destruction of images which
Fane, Patrice Giasson, Serge Gruzinski, Francesco Pellizzi, and characterized the initial period of both military and
Gerhard Wolf for the suggestions and intellectual support they gave
spiritual conquest, one has to wonder why missionaries
me during the preparation of this work. Finally, thanks are due to John
Farhat for his patient work in translating the French text.
then advocated the incorporation of featherworks into
1. "Cat?chisme en langue otomi/' Paris, Biblioth?que Nationale Christian ritual.5 A possible answer lies in the feeling of
de France, Fond Mexicain n. 76, f. 9v. (see also f. 6v.). In the wonder evoked by the precision and versatility of the
catechism of Pedro de Gante and in the Mazahua catechism of Toluca,
technique, with its brilliant colors reminiscent of
the Holy Spirit is represented by an eagle with colored feathers. See L.
European stained glass windows, enamels, and
Resines Ll?rente, Catecismos americanos del siglo XVI. (Salamanca:
Junta de Castilla y Le?n, 1992) and Catecismo de Fray Pedro de miniatures. Due to its prominence in both the Indian
Gante, facsimile (Madrid: Testimonio Compa??a Editorial, 1992). and Christian cosmologies, brilliance was one of the
2. The Salvator Mundi mosaic (88 x 72 cm) is conserved in
Mexico at the Museo National de Arte Virreinal of Tepotzotlan. It is 3. E. I. Estrada de Gerlero, "La plumaria, expresi?n art?stica por
known to have been acquired from the collections of Castillo de excelencia," ?n M?xico en el mundo de las col lecciones de arte
Chapultepec. The work is mentioned by Marita Mart?nez del R?o de (M?xico: Azabache, 1994).
Redo, "La plumaria virreinal," in T. Castell?Yturbide, ed., El arte 4. In 1558 the Franciscan Pedro de Gante wrote to Philippe II: "y
plumaria en M?xico (M?xico: Banamex, 1993), p. 120; See also S. para que mayor sea la merced que V.M. les hiciere, les favorezca con
Gruzinski, La guerre des images (Paris: Fayard, 1990); idem, alguna limosna para ornamentos y para paramentos porque est? muy
L'Am?rique de la Conqu?te peinte par les indiens du Mexique (Paris: pobre la capilla, siendo el templo donde viene la gente de cuatro
Flammarion, 1991), p. 150; idem, La pens?e m?tisse (Paris: Fayard, leguas alrededor, que no cabe el patio de gente donde cabr?n m?s de
1999). I had two occasions to examine the work closely: first while it sesenta mil hombres." P. de Gante, "Carta a Felipe II," in C?dice
was in restoration at the INAH in Churubusco (Mexico D.F.) and again Franciscano del siglo XVI (Mexico, 1941 ), p. 207.
in the Museum of Tepotzotlan. I'd like to thank Fran?oise Hatchondo 5. This is attested by several sources from the period. One can
and Rolando Araujo from the restoration workshops in Churubusco, mention, for example: Sahag?n, Acosta, Las Casas, Torquemada,
and Monica Mart? and Rosa Diez P?rez of the Museum of Tepotzotlan Motolinia, De la Rea, all of whom had praise for the amanteca
for having given me access to the work. creations used in Christian ceremonies.
228 RES 42 AUTUMN 2002

Figure 2. Salvator Mundi, first half of the sixteenth century, Mexican feather mosaic. 88 x 72 cm, Tepotzotlan, Museo
Nacional del Virreinato (photo courtesy of INAH, Mexico). See Martin del Campo y S?nchez 1979 for a color
reproduction.
 Russo: Plumes of sacrifice 229

most exploited aesthetic qualities used to convert native

American populations.6 Another possibility is that the
intention of incorporating featherwork into Christian
ritual was to exorcise the material of its diabolical or
pagan references.7 But the question becomes even more
complex as soon as one understands the importance
of analyzing the context in which plumage took on
much greater significance both before and after Spanish
conquest: the context of ritualized sacrifice (see fig. 3).
What did feathers evoke in Christian and pre-Hispanic
visual cultures that inspired both to use them to mediate
the relationship with the divine? And, as with the
tropical rendering of the Holy Spirit in the pictorial
catechism, what relationship is constructed in the
Salvator Mundi mosaic between feathers as material for
the construction of an ?mage and the iconography of the
?mage itself?
The Holy Spirit of the pictorial catechism, the
Salvator Mundi of Tepotzotlan, the feathered ornaments
of Mexica human sacrifice, as well as the miters created
by the amanteca for use during Christian liturgies?all
share a common aesthetic horizon that I will define as
m?tonymie in nature. The symbolic procedures which
constitute this shared aesthetic horizon are often so Figure 3. The sacrificial victim, Florentine Codex, Florence,
Biblioteca Mediceo Laurenziana, Ms. Palatino n. 218, bk. II, f.
complex and distant in both space and time that
84v (photo and copyright courtesy of Biblioteca Mediceo
their logic is difficult to grasp. It is necessary therefore Laurenziana, Florence).
to traverse this distance in order to understand
the conditions that made possible a network of
interconnections?both aesthetic and historical?which
is not as clear today as it was then.8 This will eventually
allow us to offer a new hypothesis concerning both the Mexica ceremonies in order to then address the issue of
pre-Hispanic Mexica world as well as the mestizo world the transferal and enrichment of their ornamental
of New Spain during the sixteenth and seventeenth aspects into the mestizo spiritual world. But this work
centuries. will also treat an additional and closely related question.
Taking an interdisciplinary approach that borrows Sacrifice, understood as "the action of making
from history, anthropology, and aesthetics, my something sacred/' profits from the performative aspects
examination will begin with the relationship between of feathers: but once one identifies the fundamental
creation and sacrifice as exhibited in the works of the relationship between creation and sacredness, how can
amanteca. I will first treat the performative aspects of one understand a work of art whose existence does not
end with that of the ritual sacrifice?9 What happens
when the ceremony is over, the sacrificial victim dies,
6. For an analysis of this phenomenon see: N. J. Saunders and the work of art disappears from the eyes of the
"Stealers of Light, Traders in Brillance. Amerindian Metaphysics in the
spectators? And finally, how can one understand these
Mirror of Conquest." Res 33 (spring 1998): 225-252. For the Andean
works outside of their relationship to rite and ritual?for
world, see: J. E. Buruc?a, G. Siracusano, A. J?uregui, "Colores en los
Andes: sacralidades prehisp?nicas y cristianas," in (In)disciplinas. instance, in a museological context?
Est?tica e historia del arte en el cruce de los discursos. Mexico, I IE
UN AM, 1999, pp. 317-344.
7. A. Russo, "El encuentro de dos mundos art?sticos en el arte 9. M. Bakhtine, "Histoire de l'art et esth?tique g?n?rale" (written
plumario del siglo XVI," Prohistoria 2 (1998): 63-91. in 1924) in Esth?tique et th?orie du roman (Paris: Gallimard (1978),
8. S. Gruzinski, "Les mondes m?l?s de la Monarchie Catholique 1997), pp. 24-39. According to Bakhtine, aesthetic analysis consists in
et autres ?connected histories?," Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales 1 the examination of the content of "aesthetic activity directed at the
(2001): 85-117, p. 87. work," (ibid. p. 32).
 230 RES 42 AUTUMN 2002

Like certain poetic works, such as the Cantares pages devoted to detailed description of the atav?os, the
Mexicanos feather art constitutes a form of imagistic ornaments corresponding to each deity.14 It is through
thinking about creation. In order to better understand these descriptions that one gathers that both Sahag?n
the theoretical contributions of the amanteca, I will and Duran felt that some crucial aspect of the world that
examine the Nahua concept of tonalli, the life-giving they were trying to understand was hidden behind the
solar essence attributed to humans at birth and for atav?os. Modern researchers studying human sacrifice
which the feather is the privileged instrument of have, however, often subordinated analysis of the
communication.11 This issue of tonalli as essence will ornamental dimension15 of the ceremonies to functional
also be treated in relation to the tropical bird image interpretation of the ritual itself.16
in the Otomi catechism mentioned above (fig. 1) In the Mexica world, one of the best demonstrated
because, as we shall see, the bird's "translation" as hypotheses is that of the relationship between human
espritu santo is only one of the possible interpretations sacrifice and Huitzilopochtli, or, more precisely, with
that can be made. the new "Huitzilopochtlian view of the world" as
inaugurated by the birth of the War God.17 In this
The ornamental side of sacrifice context, D?rdica S?gota understands human sacrifice as
the interpretive staging of a conflict between the gods
The first observers of Mexica ceremonies noticed a and man whose function was to avoid the recurrence of
close relationship between sacrifice and decorative mythical violence18 (as evinced, for example, in the
complexity: the ornamental dimension of the rituals cosmological myth recounting the death of the goddess
were indissociable from what has too often been over Coyolxauhqui at the hands of her younger brother,
considered as its central focus, the death of the victim. Huitzilopochtli, who threw her from atop Coatepec).
The sacrificial victims (see fig. 3), whether they were During the ceremonies of the fifteenth month, the
nobles or slaves, were carefully dressed for their last few Panquetzaliztli, the birth and conquests of the War God
steps on earth, as witnessed by the earliest arriving were celebrated through a massive series of human
conquistadors: "They adorned the heads of the slaves sacrifices carried out according to the narrative
who were to die with headdresses made of precious sequences of the myth. According to S?gota, the artistic
feathers/' and "he who was about to die is very well object's primary function is that of mediating the conflict
decorated with feathers from head to toe/'12 The
spectators to the ceremonies were completely taken in 14. Y. Gonzales Torres, El sacrificio humano entre los mexicas
by the performative force of the scene: "They pasted the (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Econ?mica, 1985).
young girls' arms and legs with red feathers; none of 15. One of the rare exceptions is Patricia Rieff Anawalt's "Memory
those crowded about looked upon them. None looked Clothing: Costumes Associated with Aztec Human Sacrifice," in Ritual
Human Sacrifice in Mesoamerica, E. H. Boone, ed. (Washington, D.C:
fixedly at them."13
Dumbarton Oaks, 1985), pp. 165-193. The catalogue of objects found
Bernardino de Sahag?n, Diego Duran, and the in the Cenote of Sacrifice is of great interest. See: Artifacts from the
informants for their respective enquiries wrote dozens of Cenote of Sacrifice, Chichen Itza, Yucat?n. Textiles, Basketry, Stone,
Bone, Shell, Ceramic, Wood, Copal, Rubber, Other Organic Materials
10. Cantares Mexicanos. Songs of the Aztecs. Trans., intro. and and Mammalian Remains. C. Chase Collings, ed. (Peabody Museum of
comment, by J. Bierhorst (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1984). Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
11. J. L. Mckeever F?rst, "The nahualli of Christ. The Trinity and Massachusetts: 1992). An interesting examination of the ornamental
the Nature of the Soul in Ancient Mexico," Res 33 (spring 1998): dimension of sacrifice in imperial China can be found in Angela Zito's
208-223. Of Body and Brush. Grand Sacrifice as Text/Performance in Eighteenth
12. "Lettera giunta a Siviglia dalla Nuova Spagna appena scoperta, Century China (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press,
(20 avril 1520)" by Didacus Lupi, a Spaniard who participated in the 1997).
Cort?s expedition. The manuscript, conserved in the Biblioteca 16. We shall omit: Sherbourne Cook's rather odd hypothesis that
Marciana in Venise, has been published in Miscellanea Marciana di human sacrifice was a means of demographic control, as well as the
Studi Bessarionei (Radova: 1976) pp. 239-261. The verses concerning hypothesis of Michel Harnes and Marvin Harris who associate
human sacrifice: lines 143-169. ritualized cannibalism with human sacrifice through a lack of protein
13. Florentine Codex. General History of the Things of New Spain, in the pre-Hispanic diet.
A. J. O. Anderson and C. E. Dibble, trans, and eds., (Santa Fe: The 17. M. Le?n Portilla. La filosof?a n?huatl (Mexico: Instituto
Schools of American Research and the University of Utah, 1950-1982) Indigenista Interamericano, 1956), p. 317.
bk. 2, ch. 23. Note that the Spanish text reports an opposite version of 18. D. S?gota, Valores pl?sticos del arte mexica (Mexico: Instituto
this same paragraph: "(toda la gente) las iba mirando sin apartar los de Investigaciones Est?ticas, UNAM, 1995), pp. 123-129. Coatepec,
ojos de ellas" in B. de Sahag?n, Historia general de las cosas de literally: "in the mountain of serpents," was also the name of the
Nueva Espa?a, A. M. Garibay, ed. (M?xico: Porr?a, 1956), p. 106. temple of Huitzilopochtli in Tenochtitlan.
 Russo: Plumes of sacrifice 231

between man and god as it was expressed in Mexica that we return to these pre-Hispanic ornaments and to
mythology. the aesthetic relationship they establish between
A second line of interpretation was inaugurated by creation and sacrifice.
Eduard Seier, who analyzed human sacrifice as a
privileged form of "feeding" the sun. Thus the intended Mexican shadows
goal was to ensure a proper equilibrium between
religion and ecosystem.19 Christian Duverger expands Light is the shadow of God24
upon Seler's ideas in La fleur l?tale, but focuses more on Tonal is shadow, nothing more25
the excess of vital energy liberated during the sacrifices.
The death of the sacrificial victims corresponds, In his Historia de las Indias, Diego Duran writes that
according to Duverger, with the recurrent deaths of the before the arrival of the Spanish no one could wear
gods who would sacrifice themselves to the Sun which featherwork objects and clothing without permission
ran the continual risk of losing its equilibrium. Sacrifice from the tlatoani (the "Governor") because the feather
could then be thought of as a way of recuperating vital was "the shadow of nobles and kings."26 This definition
energy, which was to be redirected to the Sun.20 of the feather is clearly odd: how can one reduce a
Lastly, David Carrasco, in his remarkable City of material, whose principal characteristic is brilliant color,
Sacrifice, puts human sacrifice into the spatial and to a somber symbol of earthly power? Who projected
such a shadow?
political context of Tenochtitlan. He proposes that the
principal function of human sacrifice was to feed, In their groundbreaking study, Henri Hubert and
legitimize, and protect the urbs and its central position Marcel Mauss stress the importance of a constant
within the expanding empire.21 Carrasco interprets the identification between the victim and the selected god
series of transformations undergone by the sacrificial that passed through the objects used during the
victim as a kind of theatrical performance. His spatial sacrifice: the victim always has something of the god
analyses of the spectacle permits him to highlight the upon him.27 This m?tonymie aspect of the ritual is
hidden purpose of these performances: to advance the analyzed by Claude L?vi-Strauss in La Pens?e Sauvage,
exemplary status of imperial Mexica ideology and to where he postulates that the principal purpose for the
narrate (in an equally ideological mode) the relationship sacrifice is to "establish a contiguous link (between
between the empire's center and its periphery, which victim, animal or vegetable, and the divinity) through a
series of successive identifications."28
was the history of military triumph over conquered
populations.22 But here, too, the link between Mexica human sacrifice presents two complementary
ceremonial ornaments and the sacrificial victim focuses features: that of the constant presence of feathers as
more on the political outcome of the transformations
than on the process of transformation itself.23 Although
24. Alfred Crosby cites this passage from the letters of Marsilio
we discuss here images produced after the Spanish Ficino, calling it "one of the most striking metaphors of the
conquest, the featherwork Salvator Mundi and the Renaissance" (The Measure of Reality. Quantification in Western
tropical Holy Spirit of the Otomi catechism both require Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, p. 132).
25. Miguel Cruz, testimony collected in 1984 in la Sierra Norte de
Puebla (Cuetzalan, M?xico) by Elena Aramoni {Talokan tata, talokan
19. E. Seier, Comentarios al C?dice Borgia, (1904) (Mexico: Fondo nana: nuestras ra?ces. M?xico: CONACULTA, 1990).
de Cultura Econ?mica, 1988) vol. 1, p. 155. 26. "Hab?a pragm?tica que la pluma no usase sino a quien los
20. C Duverger, La fleur l?tale. Economie du sacrifice azt?que reyes diesen licencia, por ser la "sombra de los se?ores" y reyes, y
(Paris: Seuil, 1983) p. 17 and p. 113. llamarla ellos por este nombre, y guard?banse, cierto, con m?s rigor
21. D. Carrasco, City of Sacrifice. The Aztec Empire and the Role que las pragm?ticas de nuestros tiempos de no traer seda," D. Duran,
of Violence in Civilization (Boston: Beacon Press, 1999). On the Historia de la Indias, de Islas y de Tierra Firme, A. M. Garibay, ed.
political dimension of human sacrifice, see also: L. S?journ?, "Los (Mexico, Porr?a: 1967) t. I, ch. 11, par. 22, p. 116.
sacrificios humanos: religi?n o pol?tica?," in Cuadernos Americanos, 27. H. Hubert, M. Mauss, "Essai sur la nature et la fonction du
no. 6(1958): 127-149. sacrifice," L'ann?e sociologique, 2 (1899): 29-138. (See in English
22. Ceremonies in honor of Xipe Totee constituted "a story the Sacrifice: Its Nature and Function. Chicago and London: The
Aztecs told to themselves about their triumphant wars, in the way they University of Chicago Press, 1964.) For a critique of Hubert's and
wanted it known" (Carrasco, ibid., p. 162). Mauss's work, see the entry on "sacrifice," by M. Cartry in Bonte,
23. Carrasco wonders: "Why did a people so fascinated by and Izard, eds., Dictionnaire de l'ethnologie et de l'anthropologie (Paris:
accomplished in music, sculpture, featherwork, (. . .) become so Quadrige, PUF, 1991) pp. 643-646.
committed to cosmic regeneration through the thrust of the ceremonial 28. C. L?vi-Strauss, La Pens?e Sauvage (Paris: Pion [1962], 1998)
knife?" (ibid., p. 51). p. 269.
232 RES 42 AUTUMN 2002

primary element and true sign of all sacrificial This story demonstrates the strict relationship between
practices,29 and that of the diverse gods for whom the gesture of sacrifice and the apparent change in status
feathered victims were immolated. This is to say that of the now-elevated subject: Quetzalcoatl is both priest
feathers are not the sole property of any one specific and victim of a self-sacrifice that immediately transforms
deity, but rather a kind of common denominator for the itself into a triumphant act.
entire Mexica pantheon of deities. As for human Another story, narrated in the same mythological
sacrifices, L?vi-Strauss's ideas allow us to ask an register as the one concerning Quetzalcoatl's birth, tells
additional question: what was in fact "contiguous" with of the first encounter on the Mexican coast between
the divinities? Was it the human being or his feathered Montezuma's ambassadors and Cort?s. The Mexica
ornaments? tlatoani greeted the newcomers with works of feathers,
A cosmogonie myth linked to the god Quetzalcoatl? gold, and precious stones (see fig. 4a) especially
whose N?huatl name signifies "feathered serpent"?tells fabricated for the occasion, and with which Montezuma's
of his being born with an unpleasant physical ambassadors adorned the Spaniards.31 One learns in the
appearance. It was Coyotlinahual, the Feathered God, Florentine Codex that these works were ornaments of
who had the task of making him handsome by clothing Quetzalcoatl, Tlaloc, and Tezcatlipoca?handcrafted, for
him in symbols whose power could elevate him to the most part, by amanteca.32 It's important to note how
superhuman status: this historical encounter was reelaborated on the
narrative level: works of art?particularly, featherwork
He first fashioned for him a banner of feathers, then a green
mask [. . .], and then a feathered beard [...]. When he had images?serve to introduce and aestheticize novelty, and
in some sense, to make it visible. Just as the hideous
finished, he gave a mirror to Quetzalcoatl. When
Quetzalcoatl looked at himself in the mirror, he was very serpent Quetzalcoatl is transformed through the emotive
satisfied, and it was then that he decided to come out of his force of the featherworks, Cort?s also attains
isolation. supernatural status through art. In the image from the
Florentine Codex, the act itself of presenting the works
The feather, along with the mask, effectuates the
of art to the conquistador takes place under a large
metamorphosis of the divinity who can subsequently banner of feathers?held in place by one of
reveal himself to humans and reappear in the works
Montezuma's envoys who appears to be offering it to
they create based upon this mythical description. In the Cort?s.33 The featherwork banner seems to illuminate
same myth, we learn that Quetzalcoatl was then
the composition in a manner formally suggestive of a
tempted by the delicious pulque?the traditional drink
made with fermented maguey juice?and got inebriated
with his sister Quetzalp?tatl. The following day, realizing
that he had profaned his own image, Quetzalcoatl 31. "Y luego sacaron los ornamentos que llevaban, y se los
decided to sacrifice himself: pusieron al Capit?n D. Hernando Cort?s atavi?ndole con ellos."
Sahag?n, Historia (see note 13), bk. 7, chap. 5. Cfr. also Duran (see
After adorning himself, he set fire to himself. It is said that note 26), t. 2, ch. 69.
when he burned, his ashes glowed so brightly that all the 32. Florentine Codex (see note 13), bk. 7, ch. 5, f. 8r. This type of
precious birds came to look at them. And when his ashes gift had probably influenced the historians of the conquest who wrote,
had been totally consumed, they saw his heart burst into a few decades after the arrival, that Cort?s embodied the return of
flame. The old ones say that his heart became the morning Quetzalcoatl himself. Serge Gruzinski writes that the Mexica had had
star. Eight days later, the great star appeared which they "the greatest of difficulties situating the invaders, and it was only much
later, after patient rereading, revision and selection of the historical
called Quetzalcoatl. And they added that from that moment
facts that they assimilated Cort?s' arrival to the return of the god
on, he was to be looked upon as a god.30
Quetzalcoatl." La pens?e m?tisse (see note 2), p. 72. See as well D.
Carrasco, Quetzalcoatl. The Irony of an Empire: Myths and Prophecies
in the Aztec Tradition (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago
Press, 1981).
29. As pointed out by Cecilio R?belo examining an image of 33. The banner is very similar to the fan conserved in Vienna
human sacrifice in the pictorial manuscript Tira de la Peregrinaci?n: known as the symbol of the pochteca, the mercantile ambassadors of
"the first victim (. . .) wears feathers on his head, a sign of his the Mexica empire. Concerning the rituals of exchange in the Mexica
imminent sacrifice," in Diccionario de Mitolog?a Nahua (1905) empire, the Florentine Codex is still the best source (see note 13), bk.
(M?xico: Porr?a, 1982), p. 454. 11, chap. 4. Pochteca and amanteca were closely associated with
30. Anales de Cuauhtitlan, in C?dice Chimalpopoca, translation each other "because the pochteca brought resplendent feathers from
from N?huatl by P. F. Velazquez (M?xico: UNAM, [1945] 1992) par. far away provinces, and the amanteca worked and assembled them
39, p. 9 and p. 11. into shields and weapons for them." (ibid., bk. 9, ch. 19).
 Russo: Plumes of sacrifice 233

giant sun looking over their meeting.34 What is the

significance of this banner's resemblance to an
apparently meteorological phenomenon?
The Sun, Tonatiuh in N?huatl, is the natural element
from which living beings receive their tonalli, a word
one can translate as "heat of the sun," "irradiation," or
even "sign of day,"35 "destiny," and, from a Christian
perspective, as "soul."36 From birth, men?but also
plants and animals?are suffused with their own tonalli.
The loss of one's tonalli is accompanied by serious
repercussions, such as sickness, fever (understood as an
imbalance of body heat symptomatic of an imbalance of
energies), and even death. The healer's principal task
was to reestablish the body's tonalli through a specific
series of therapeutic practices.37 Ethnologists have
underlined the fact that the concept of the individual's
shadow in the traditions of modern-day indigenous
peoples is directly derived from the pre-Hispanic
tradition of the tonalli. Thus the danger of losing one's
"shadow" is the same as losing one's tonalli.38 What is
at issue here is the relationship between the individual
and his spiritual force: the shadow is?according to its
very shape?physically identical to the individual, just
as the tonalli can be understood as the individual's
spiritual "form." Both shadow and tonalli indeed have
the same source, namely, the Sun.39
Thus when Duran affirms that the feather is the
"shadow of nobles and kings," he affirms the

34. Saunders insists on the banner's brightness (see note 6). On the
list of objects Diego de Soto took back to Spain in 1524, one finds "a
very large sun made of green feathers, in the middle of which there
are golden rays with flesh-colored feathers" ( L. Martinez, ed.,
Documentos cortesanos (1518-1528), t. 1 (M?xico: UNAM-SEP, 1990).
35. Le tonal as "sign of day," forms the radical for such words as
tonalpohualli, "cuenta de los dias"; tonalpoaliztli, "adivinaci?n"; et
tonalamatl, "calendario basado en la adivinaci?n genetliaca y
adaptado al ritual de las fiestas" (R. Simeon, Diccionario de la lengua
n?huatl o mexicana [1885] [M?xico: Siglo XXI, 1997], pp. 715-716).
36. A. L?pez Austin, Cuerpo humano e ideolog?a. Las creencias de
los antiguos nahuas (Mexico: UNAM [1980], 1996), pp. 223-252.
37. The Tratado de Supersticiones of Hernando Ru?z de Alarc?n
(1629) is one of the oldest sources for therapeutic remedies applied to Figure 4. The offering of gifts to Cort?s and the capture of the
patients having lost their tonalli. Aramoni (see note 25), p. 47. Mexica Ambassadors, Florentine Codex, Florence, Biblioteca
38. G. Foster, "Nagualism in Mexico and Guatemala," Acta
Mediceo Laurenziana, Ms. Palatino n. 220, bk. XII (photo and
Americana, v. 2, 1-2 (1944): 85-103. Aramoni (see note 25); A. J.
copyright courtesy of Biblioteca Mediceo Laurenziana,
Rubel, Carl W. O'Nell, Susto. A Folk Illness (Los Angeles: University of
California Press, 1984). Florence).
39. In N?huatl manuscripts dating from the colonial period, the
word tonalli appears as a synonym for "signature." See J. Lockhart, The
Nahuas after the Conquest. A Social and Cultural History of the graphical trace of the person's passage. See also: M-N Chamoux, "La
Indians of Central Mexico. Sixteenth through Eighteenth Centuries notion nahua d'individu: un aspect du tonalli dans la r?gion de
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992), p. 414. The "signature" is Huauchinango, Puebla," Enqu?tes sur l'Am?rique moyenne. M?langes
here to be understood as a kind of un mediated projection of the offerts ? Guy Stresser-P?an, D. Michelet, ed. (M?xico: INAH-CEMCA,
person himself, a kind of reduced physical "shadow" which leaves a 1989), pp. 303-311.
234 RES 42 AUTUMN 2002

identification between works of art and the tonalli of the ceremony devoted to Xipe Totee ("Our Lord the
lords and kings. Quetzalcoatl cannot come out of Flayed," a divinity particularly associated with
isolation until the deity Coyotlinahual fabricates feather agricultural activity) carefully ensured that the sacrificial
ornaments which confer a new destiny upon him. victim was adorned "with the white turkey feathers and
Likewise, Cort?s is transformed by the works he receives artistic cape associated with this deity."44 When
as gifts and will be reborn in Mexico with the proper sacrifices were made toToci ("Our Grandmother," a
tonalli transferred to him by the Sun through feathers divinity associated with the movement of the earth and
and precious stones (see fig. 4a).40 It is not by chance therapeutic practices), it was the priest's obligation to
that the image following that of the offering of gifts to "collect the finest and most resilient eagle feathers
Cort?s in the Florentine Codex (see fig. 4b) represents which Toci would wear before being put to death."45
Cort?s in a hat suddenly adorned with feathers while If one has the impression on reading Sahag?n's
ordering the capture of the Mexica ambassadors. The hat description of the "eagle feathers which Toci would
Cort?s is wearing is occidental in style (see fig. 5) and wear before being put to death" that it was the divinity
probably reminiscent of a well-known symbol of the who was about to die, sometimes in the historical
antique deity of war, Mars, whose helmet was always sources the name of the divinity is preceded by the
adorned with feathers in western iconography.41 The expression ixiptlatl in teotl, signifying that it was the
important point is, however, the addition of the plumes divine ixiptlatl which was about to die. The anti-mimetic
just after receiving the gifts from Montezuma's envoy. tenor of the word ixiptlatl must immediately be
The offering is the sign of a metamorphosis which underlined:46 ixiptlatl is not to be taken as a
includes the possible transformation of the encounter representation of something but rather refers to an
into a conquest: thanks to the powers conferred upon "emanation" of the thing itself, a part of the thing itself.
Cort?s by the works of the amanteca, he has implicitly As Alfredo L?pez Austin writes, "the images do not
become a future conqueror.42 represent the gods, nor are they symbols for the gods:
they are 'vessels for the divine essence,' earthly
containers for the emanations of the gods."47 These
Ixiptlatl and sacrifice: Ephemeral and permanent
emanations and manifestations of the gods rely on the
Let's return now to the ceremonial context in which powers of identification conferred through the
people to be sacrificed were given authorization to wear ornamentation. Unlike in the sacrifices L?vi-Strauss
feather objects. The ritualized language used during discusses in La Pens?e Sauvage, in which "contiguity"
what Duverger calls the "pre-sacrificial play," which between victim and deity is established through a series
precedes the actual killing, abounds in references to the of analogous identifications,48 in Mexica sacrifices the
metaphorical importance of amanteca artwork. In the elements permitting the sacrificial identification are the
"Song of the Warrior from the South," one finds, for only ones that are not sacrificed. This brings us to an
example, the expression "iuiyoc in nomalli,f?"my Veinte Himnos Sacros de los Nahuas (M?xico: UNAM, 1958), pp.
captive is adorned in feathers"?which signifies: "my 40-41.
captive is ready for sacrifice."43 The priest in charge of 44. Textos de los Informantes de Sahag?n: 1 Ritos, sacerdotes y
atav?os de los dioses, M. Le?n Portilla, ed. (M?xico: UNAM, 1992),
pp. 104-105.
40. It also seems necessary to analyze the act of gift giving in the 45. Ibid., pp. 90-91.
opposite direction as well, that is: to what extent could the exchange 46. As Serge Gruzinski has proposed many times, for instance in
of gifts correspond to an attempt to capture the tonalli of the La pens?e m?tisse (see note 2), pp. 264-265.
newcomers? (Serge Gruzinski, personal communication). The 47. Etymological analysis of the word ixiptlatl gives some probable
ambiguity of the gift giving is underlined by Saunders (see note 6) p. indications on the close relationship between art and sacrifice.
237. According to Alfredo L?pez Austin, behind the concept ixiptlatl one
41. See for instance Mars in the Calendar of Les Tr?s Riches finds the concept of toptli: box, container. See his Tamoanchan y
Heures du Duc de Berry, facsimile edited by G. Bazin (Paris: Somogy, Tlalocan (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Econ?mica, 1994) p. 128.
1990). According to the linguist Karin Dakin ixiptlatl is derived from ixtli,
42. As for the style of hat Cort?s is wearing, see the "falcon hat" meaning "face, surface" and patla, a verb signifying "to disguise, to
bearing the devices of the Medicis, Toledo, ca. 1550, conserved in exchange" (personal communication). Within the word ixiptlatl,
Florence at the Museo del Bargello and presented as no. 27 of the Carrasco points out the root xip, meaning "skin, rind or covering," City
catalogue Tr?sor des M?dicis. La Florence des M?dicis, une ville et of Sacrifice (see note 21), p. 132.
une cour d'Europe (Paris: Editions d'Art Somogy, 1998). 48. L?vi-Strauss (see note 28) quotes a passage from Evans
43. This is the second of twenty sacred hymns Sahag?n includes in Pritchard explaining how the Nuer sacrificed a cucumber instead of a
the Primeros Memoriales (and later in the Florentine Codex), without bull, thanks to a series of linguistic and symbolic associations
offering a translation. For a Spanish translation, see A. M. Garibay, (cucumber-egg-chick-hen-goat-bull), p. 268.
 Russo: Plumes of sacrifice 235

Figure 5. Zeugbuchern in Osterr. Nationalbibliothek (photo courtesy of Osterr.

Nationalbibliothek, Wien).

understanding of Mexica sacrifice which is closer to from being a simple decorative feature, the aesthetic of
Hubert's and Mauss's interpretation: "the victim always the sacrifice forms an intrinsic part of its essential
has something of the god upon him."49 nature.50 As life drained out of the victim's body, the
Something more complex is going on behind the fact
that the identification between victim and deity could 50. The importance of the non-discursive powers of the
not take place without the props of the amanteca. Far ornamental dimension as opposed to the content itself of the
representation is at the heart of Jean-Claude Bonne's article: "Les
49. Hubert, Mauss (see note 27). ornements de l'histoire (A propos de l'ivoire carolingien de Saint
236 RES 42 AUTUMN 2002

series of transformations culminated in the death of what ran its course, bird feathers assured the continued
was referred to as "the disguised emanation" of one or transformation of certain (but not all) victims.55 At the
another deity. The finite nature of physical human life very moment the victim was suspended between life
is recalled by the concept tlacamictiliztli, a N?huatl and death, he dreamed of taking wing and effectuating
word usually translated as "human sacrifice." But the transformation which was the reward for his physical
etymological ly, tlacamictiliztli seems to have had no demise. He would sing: "Macuel nonmiqui, ma
necessary relationship to sacredness, and rather can be niquetzaltototl, ma nipatlantihui,f: "Oh that I may die,
translated simply as "the act of killing men." In fact, that I may be transformed into a quetzal, that I may fly."
during the act of human sacrifice, the true divine
emanation, the ixiptlatl, did not die: it was only the
A plumed Salvator Mundi: Representation or relic?
physical body of the deity, the locus of identification
which died, whereas the tonalli-work (the feathers, but Gasparo Contarini, the Venetian ambassador of
also the flowers, songs, and paper decorations displayed Charles V, used the following terms to describe the
during the sacrificial performance) did not vanish Mexican featherworks recently arrived in Antwerp from
immediately. The tonalli-work and the ixiptlatin, which New Spain:
arose out of a singular m?tonymie process, would finally They create works with the feathers of miraculous birds.
be detached from the relationship of identification that Never have I seen here any embroidery or handiwork that
had been created between man and deity, and would can rival the quality of some of their featherwork. It
continue their existence beyond that of the death of the possesses its own vaghezza due to the varying nature of its
sacrificial victim. Although the ornamental materials? colors which, like the neck of a pigeon, change with the
feathers and songs?are somewhat ephemeral in nature, light.56
they were seen as possessing life beyond that of the
The term vaghezza that Contarini uses in his
sacrificed victim and thereby contained the possibility
description of the featherworks is, in the Italian language
of his resurrection.51 Despite their apparent fragility,
of the sixteenth century, not at all imprecise. It
feathers incarnated the perfect ideas of permanence
and recurrence. designates the aesthetic amplitude and sensory
multiplicity associated with an artistic material whose
The collection of sixteenth century N?huatl poetry
versatility and variability Contarini had never seen
(commonly referred to as the Cantares Mexicanos)*2
before. Contarini, thus designating the imaginative
furnishes an abundance of elements which allow us to
potential allowed by a material which produces a subtle
analyze this continuous transformation of beings and
interplay of light and shadow,57 and the "miraculous"
situations. The sacrificial victim, for example, is
described as "drifting as a feather into the spirit land."53
55. The murals of Cacaxtla, a pre-Hispanic site in the Mexico
In another poem, it is the ixiptlatl itself that sings as it
Valley, depict the souls of warriors transformed into birds. This belief
enters the body of the victim: "I'm a quetzal come was also shared by the Purepecha of Michoacan, according to
flying. I come from beyond. I'm a plume thrush swan, Chavero. R?belo (see note 29), p. 195. Sahag?n tells that warriors,
come flying! See me, I frown in aTezozomoc skin."54 "after four years, would transform themselves into different kinds of
delicately and brightly plumed birds which, like tzinzones, fed from all
Birds, especially the quetzal, are the means through
the flowers of heaven and earth" (see note 13), bk. 3, ch. 5. The
which essence, ixiptlatl, can manifest itself in the body tzinzon is "a bird which flies from flower to flower" Simeon (see note
of ordinary men who?whether noble or warrior? 35), p. 730.
remained no less mortal as physical beings. Once the 56. "Lavorano poi lavori di penne d'uccelli miracolosi. Certamente
series of identifications between deity and victim non ho veduto in queste parti alcun ricamo n? altro lavoro tanto
sottile, como sono alcuni di quelli di penna, li quali hanno un'altra
R?mi)." Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales 1 (1996): 37-70. In vaghezza perch? paiono di diversi colori secondo ch'hanno il Iurne,
medieval times, Ornamentum signified "useful equipment for the come che vediamo fatti nel collo d'un Colombo," G. Contarini,
proper functioning of a thing." "Relazione del Contarini ritornato ambasciatore dell'imperatore Carlo
51. Y?lotl Gonzales writes that the skulls of victims were V, I'anno 1525," Bologna University Library, ms. 1321 III 732., f. 676
conserved by the lords and decorated in various manners (see note v. These are the same works praised by Albrecht D?rer during his trip
14), p. 284. Duran recounts that "near the bones of sacrificed warriors to Bruxelles.
lie their clothing. These relics become the object of cults" (See note 57. In sixteenth-century Italian, vaghezza designated "cosa vaga,
26), vol. 2, p. 163. bella che accende l'ammirazione." One can note the reference to
52. Cantares Mexicanos (see note 10): 1, 2, 90. light: "an indeterminate, beautiful object which 'sparks' the
53. Ibid., song 69, 32. imagination." See Cortellazzo, Zoli, Dizionario etimol?gico del la
54. Ibid., song 80, st. E. lingua italiana (Bologna: Zanichelli, 1972).
 Russo: Plumes of sacrifice 237

nature of the birds providing it, brings us back to the

central question of the relationship between Mexica and
Christian sacrifice: What is the symbolic and aesthetic
role played by the tropical feathers used in the Salvator
Mundi of Tepotzotlan?
Variously associated with deviltry ("devil" would be
rendered in N?huatl as tlacatecolotl: human owl),58
paganism,59 or even a negative symbol of Jews in some
medieval manuscripts,60 feathers occupy a rather
ambiguous position in the European culture of the
sixteenth century. Even more so given that feathers are
the privileged symbol of divine intervention. God has at
his disposal an entire army, nine divisions of winged
angels.61 In the medieval manuscript Les Heures de
Rohan (see fig. 6),62 Christ has just been sacrificed, and
God manifests himself in the blue sky accompanied by a
multitude of seraphim with outspread plumage. But
feathers play a major and fundamental role in the
Christian dogma of the Trinity, which postulates
that between Father and Son, the connection is
metonymically maintained by the Holy Spirit, the divine
mediator symbolized by the white dove (see fig. 7).63
During the first century of colonization, the correct
teaching of the dogma of the Trinity was among the most
important missionary preoccupations.64 The Salvator
Figure 6. Heures de Rohan, late fourteenth century, Paris, BNF,
58. B. Alc?ntara Rojas, El Infierno en la evangelizaci?n de la
Manuscrit Latin 9471, f. 135 (photo courtesy of BNF).
Nueva Espa?a. Licenciatura Dissertation (M?xico: UNAM, 1999), p.
137.
59. Duran, for instance, draws a relation between the god
Huitzilopochtli and Mars by virtue of the feathered helmet. Duran (see
note 26), bk. 1, ch. 7, par. 39. Mundi's right hand gesturing the number three seems to
60. R. Mellinkoff, "Demonic Winged Headgear," Viator, 16 (1985): recall this obsession of explaining the mystery of the
367-381.
unus et trinus (see fig. 2). But when one returns to the
61. Influence from the Angeologia of Dionigi I'Aereopagita is
clearly legible in N?huatl devotional literature. Cantares Mexicanos pictorial catechisms used to Christianize the Indian
(see note 10), song 68, stanzas 95-96; Bernardino de Sahag?n's population, one finds attempts to maintain Catholic
Psalmodia Christiana, translated by A. Anderson, (Salt Lake City: orthodoxy side by side with features susceptible of being
University of Utah Press, 1993), v. 173. See as well Bierhort's
reinterpreted by the indigenous peoples. For example, in
introduction to the Cantares (see note 10), p. 33. As for postconquest
the Otomi pictorial catechism the gloss "trinidad" (see
resonances of Dionigi in mestizo cosmology, cfr. Gruzinski, La pens?e
(see note 2), p. 257. fig. 1 a) appears under the profile of a Salvator Mundi
62. Paris, Biblioth?que Nationale de France, ms lat. 9571, f. 135. holding the same tripartite globe as the one appearing in
(Les Heures de Rohan, Commentary by Mi I lard Meiss and Marcel the featherwork mosaic of Tepotzotlan. There subsist
Thomas, Paris: Draegen Fr?res, 1973). traces of both orthodoxy and misunderstanding. The
63. See the representation ot the Trinity in the Heures de Rohan, f.
tripartite globe, whose intention was to be yet another
210. The first biblical episode in which the white dove appears as a
figure for the Trinity is the baptism of Christ (Luke). In Genesis, 1, the reference to the Trinity, is clearly the source for a
Holy Spirit is depicted as moving on the water ("Spiritus Dei ferebatur paradoxical lack of coincidence between a European
super aquas"). tradition, which represented the earth as divided into
64. "Erroneous Indian interpretation of the Trinity was sometimes
three continents (Asia, Africa, and Europe),65 and the
at the source of outright heresy." Gruzinski, La pens?e m?tisse (see
note 2), p. 293. See also David Tavares, in Colonial Latin American
Review and M. C. Maquivar, "La trinidad trifacial en la Nueva Espa?a: 65. D. Woodward, "Medieval Mappaemundi," in The History of
un tipo de trindiad her?tica," in La abolici?n del arte (M?xico: IIE Cartography (Chicago and London: The Chicago University Press,
UNAM, 1998) pp. 199-218. 1988, pp. 286-370).
238 RES 42 AUTUMN 2002

ifyt5?nteco Epcut) ?.ILa&e?a,op:?nc?'

ca Ental?mente piooete?amemo.
^cat3?n,te<* fi?b.c
tat$n,giiante oe?pa
prtf3ui>gu?Tpt? 'dre,Koelt><jo,
Cancro ;n?cpe* Eoeilplrttufan
frualt?a gano* cto,cem?en$oa
lefiamente? fcajerm?tefta
?il&aqiiima ment?.
t?cammrqmcfc ?rSfepancma
tmqu?ftajque tos vieren etta
En?namatljca* 'X _ _carta, ?efcr?p
fonefciiatinotoca ^r?d?cogo tur?,como go ^r?cifco gomc3
mejtfanospEn ni ^uana fai? {o?o;5uafM?ancr;e5)iiatural
Figure 7. Alonso de Molina, Confesionario Mayor, Mexico, 1569, f. 61 (photo
courtesy of Biblioteca Nacional, M?xico D.F.).

geographical reality that the discovery of the Americas a tropical bird as the Holy Spirit, and the hierarchy of
had just revealed.66 angels: "And now you come created O Quetzal, O
As Elena Aramoni has clearly demonstrated: "[. . . ] Esp?ritu Santo. You arrive! You come bringing your
the iconographie representation of the Holy Trinity most swans, the angels/'68
commonly disseminated among the Indians facilitated In this poetic rendering, the Holy Spirit is rapidly
its translation into N?huatl religious terminology, thus transformed into a quetzal accompanied by swans, the
diluting the major central mystery of the Catholic faith: precious birds corresponding to the angels. Speed,
Father-Sky resting upon Mother Earth, and the Son or creation, light, and plumage, as elements revealed in
Jesus Christ-Sun whose tonal or alter ego is the white the poem, elaborate on a vision of the Holy Spirit that
bird, that is, the Holy Spirit."67 But this symbolic and is as intense as it is ephemeral. But the Holy Spirit is
iconographie exchange of religious figures between the not portrayed as any bird but as the quetzal, an
Mesoamerican ancj Christian worlds had consequences ornithological species whose prestige had been
which were more than merely incidental and should be celebrated since the beginning of Mexica conquest of
subject to deeper analysis. For instance, take the tropical regions. The Holy Spirit as tropical queztal
personification of the Holy Spirit in N?huatl devotional clearly incorporates concepts belonging to pre-Hispanic
poetry in the form of birds other than the dove. In a Mexica cosmology. It belongs, therefore, to the same
song dedicated to ipalnemohuani, the "creator of life," spatial register of glorious expansion during the period
the poet creates a visual link between the Christian God, of Montezuma's conquests69 from the periphery of the
former Mexica empire in the Mexico Valley to present
day Guatemala. Carrasco's ideas of sacrifice in the urbs
66. The globe suggests also the chimalli?the shield?as in the
?mage of the sacrificial victim (fig. 3); thanks to Diana Fane for this
association. The tripartite globe figured in many images of the period, 68. "Tiquetzaltototl timochiuhtihuitz Spilito Xanto / Zan
as in the Florentine Codex (see note 13) or to depict the letter "O" in tihualacico Zan tiquihuicahuitz in / moquecholhuan a yn angeloti,"
Diego de Valad?s's glossary in Rhetorica Christiana (Perugia, 1576); Cantares Mexicanos (see note 10) chant 70, stanza 5. "Swan" is the
the mestizo Valad?s studied in San Jos? de los Naturales with Pedro de translation of the N?huatl "Quecholli."
Gante. A sixteenth-century Salvator Mundi of the Rhein School, where 69. Frances Berdan has drawn a map showing the various origins
the globe includes the Americas, is conserved at the Deutsches of tribute paid in feathers and constructed a table (based on the Codex
Historisches Museum of Berlin, Inv.-Nr. Gm 93/24 (see: http://www. Mendoza) quantifying annual tribute in his "Economic dimensions of
dhm.de/ausstellungen/bildzeug/qtvr/DHM/n/BZkopie/raum_06.02.htm). precious metals, stones, and feathers: The Aztec State Society,"
67. Aramoni (see note 25), p. 168; cfr also F?rst (see note 11). Estudios de Cultura N?huatl 22 (1992): 291-323.
 Russo: Plumes of sacrifice 239

of Tenochtitl?n as a way of conceptualizing the empire's

center and how it maintained (through the same
sacrificial acts) control over its periphery70 can be seen
as motivating the choice of divine mediator from among
the distant inhabitants of its tropical territories: the
quetzal.71
But the amanteca mosaics also raise new questions
concerning the Christian world: What happens when
feathers as objects drawn in occidental images?as in
the plumage of angels in the Heures de Rohan (fig. 6)?
take on a physicality as they do in the Salvator Mundi of
Tepotzotlan (fig. 2), transform themselves into tropical
bird feathers, and become the material itself of the
image?72 A first implication is that the image would
constitute in reality a kind of physical relic of the
Trinity itself.
Even if the Christ of Tepotzotlan falls well within the
iconographie topos of a usual Salvator Mundi, certain
elements of the mosaic lead us to suppose that its
composition may have resulted from a crossing of two
or more different references of the period: an image of
the Salvator Mundi, as an engraving (see fig. 8),73 and
an ?mage of the Trinity contained in a prayer book of the
period (see fig. 9).74 Evocation of the Trinity might have

70. Carrasco, City of Sacrifice (see note 21 ). Cfr. also Johanna

Broda, "The Provenance of the Offering of Templo Mayor: Tribute and
Figure 8. Salvator Mundi, xylography, Barcelone, Johann
Cosmovision/' in E. Hill Boone, ed., The Aztec Templo Mayor
Luscher, 1503, (after Gruzinski, L'Am?rique de la Conqu?te
(Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks: 1993).
71. The Holy Spirit appears several times as a quetzal in the [see note 2], p. 150, fig. 122).
N?huatl Psalmodia Cristiana of 1583, a text which Sahag?n overtly
wrote for the Indians. This is yet another reason to wonder who first
made the Quetzal-Holy Spirit metaphoric relation. Was it the
neophytes or the missionaries?
72. "During the Middle Ages, ornamenta often served to heighten
the aesthetic or para-aesthetic varue of the work through such qualities
as rareness, splendor, brilliance and subtlety of the effect produced,
luxury, polychromy, skill and ingeniousness involved in the work's
construction, even the sheer painstakingness required by the work's
execution, or the mere cost and weight of the precious materials
used/' Bonne (see note 50) p. 46.
73. Gruzinski, L'Am?rique (see note 2) p. 150, fig. 123. Christie's
has recently sold a Bruges Book of Hours of 1505 containing a
miniature of the Salvator Mundi very similar to that of Tepotzotlan,
particularly for the colors used (Christie's Sale 6650. 11 July 2002.
Estimated ?180,000-250,000). Thanks to Nathalie de Moussac for this
information. Concerning the iconography of the Salvator Mundi and its
various transformations, see: Sixten Ringbom, De l'ic?ne ? la sc?ne
narrative (1965) (Paris: G?rard Monfort, 1997).
74. The xylography of the Trinity is part of a French prayer book
printed around 1500. In the same prayer book, I have found a wood
cut illustration of "the Jesse Tree," which may have served as a model
for the feather miters conserved in Vienna and Toledo (A. Russo, "El
renacimiento vegetal. Arboles de Jes? entre el Viejo Mundo y el Figure 9. The Trinity, xylography, Officium Beatae Mariae
Nuevo," Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Est?ticas 73 [1998]: Virginis, Paris, ca. 1500 (Imola, Biblioteca Comunale,
4-39). 4.M.1.47, f. L.VI.V). (photo courtesy of BCI).
240 RES 42 AUTUMN 2002

been quite important in the elaboration of the lapidary One of the most important goals of Christianization
writing that accompanies the image: one sees, for was to achieve the passage from pre-Hispanic human
example, to the right of Christ, the word filius,75 just as sacrifice to the Eucharist. According to the Christian
in the engraving from the prayer book. The Holy Spirit is dogma of transubstantiation, bread and wine become,
omnipresent in the image: the hundreds of feathers that after consecration, the blood and the body of Christ. The
clothe the body of the Holy Savior, which make up the "host" (from the Latin hostia: "victim") is the site of this
sky and whose illumination is reflected in the globe in m?tonymie transference. Man is spared paying the price
Christ's left hand, are the Holy Spirit par excellence, as of redemption through the perpetual sacrifice of God's
suggested by these lines from the Cantares Mexicanos: son. The priest as representative of Christ is the
"And now you come created, O Quetzal, O Esp?ritu incontestable agent for all liturgical performances in
Santo. You arrive! You come bringing your swans, these which the sacrifice is renewed in a less sanguinary
manner.
angels. . . ." If the poem permits the visualization of the
Holy Spirit in the form of a quetzal, the mosaic exhibits The presence of the divine body of Christ during
the Holy Spirit in the very material itself of its Communion is thematized in Saint Gregory's Mass
composition, thanks to the laborious handiwork of the (see fig. 10),78 a feather mosaic dating from 1539
amanteca who created a relic of the Trinity out of and created in the atelier of Fray Pedro de Gante.
tropical plumage.76 The Franciscan friar (whom we have already met
It is again in N?huatl devotional literature of the complaining to the king about the lack of images in the
period that one finds a supplementary element New Spain monasteries)79 was particularly involved in
demonstrating how feathers were used "metonymically" the conversion of Indian peoples through images and
in the composition of the Trinity. In his Psalmodia artistic work. In San Francisco's chapel of San Jos? de los
Christiana, which Sahag?n wrote in N?huatl and Naturales he founded the Escuela y talleres de Artes
published in 1583, the three persons of the Trinity are Mec?nicas where pre-Hispanic traditions, such as
visualized as a plumed quetzallalpiloni, an intricate feather art, were mixed with Christian iconographies to
headband resembling those created by the amanteca: "I educate neophytes as well as to produce works for
sign myself in the name of the Father, the Son and the European exportation. As Gante wrote in a letter to
Holy Spirit. With this feathered headband the sons of the Philip II, his method of teaching was particularly
Church daily adorn themselves/'77 addressed to persuade the Indians to forget their
"excessive sacrifices."80
In the feather mosaic Saint Gregory's Mass?its
Liturgy and reappearance
elaboration was supervised by de Gante himself?Pope
It is now time to contextualize the Christian image Gregory (590-606) is celebrating mass when Christ
within the founding dogmas of its liturgy; that is, Christ appears on the altar surrounded by symbols of the
as perpetual sacrifice celebrated during each occurrence P?ssion. The image was certainly inspired by a European
of mass. engraving.81 However, a copy is never exactly the same
as the original. On the capes worn by the Pope and two
other attending clergy one sees possible references to
75. The writing that frames the Salvator Mundi of Tepotzotlan has
pre-Hispanic human sacrifices, which Spanish
not yet been deciphered. It consists of a sixteen letter formulation
repeating itself on all four sides of the mosaic. It may be a beginning
missionaries tried to replace with the dogma of
of a psalm, or a liturgical reference as "Salve Sancta Faci?s Nostrae transubstantiation. The red floral motifs (see fig. 11)?
redemptionis," similar to the one written on the bottom of the Salvator
Mundi copy after Van Eyck (Book of Hours, Bruges ca. 1460,
Georgetown University, Lauinger Library. For a reproduction see the 78. E. I. Estrada de Gerlero, "Una obra de plumaria de San Jos? de
home internet page http://www.library.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/ los Naturales," in Arte y coerci?n. Primer coloquio del Comit?
treasu res/I mages/j pg/f I em i sh. j pg). mexicano de historia del arte (Mexico: IIE-UNAM, 1992).
76. Featherwork relics were among the most popular objects 79. Cfr. here note 4.
commissioned from the amanteca. Several examples are still 80. "Rara que se olvidasen de sus excesivos sacrificios." In C?dice
conserved today. (Metropolitan Museum, New York; Victoria and Franciscano (see note 4), p. 169.
Albert Museum, London; Museo de Historia del Castillo de 81. Pascal Mongne, "La Messe de Saint Gr?goire du Mus?e des
Chapultepec, Mexico D.F.) Cfr. Castello' Yturbide (see note 2). Jacobins d'Auch," in La Revue du Louvre et des Mus?es de France 5/6
77. Sahagun, Psalmodia (see note 61), prologue, second psalm, p. (1994): 38-47. See also S. P?rez Carrillo, "Aproximaci?n a la
19. The quetzallalpiloni is described in the Florentine Codex (see note iconograf?a de la misa de San Gregorio en Am?rica," in Cuadernos de
13), bk8, ch. 9. Arte colonial del Museo de Am?rica 4 (1988): 91 -106.
 Russo: Plumes of sacrifice 241

ex
Jif IV..... >? * ?&

Figure 10. Saint Gregory's Mass, feather mosaic, Mexico, 1539. Mus?e de Auch (France). Se
S?nchez 1979 for a color reproduction (photo courtesy of Mus?e de Auch).
242 RES 42 AUTUMN 2002

Figure 11. Detail of Saint Gregory's Mass, author's drawing. Figure 12. A pre-Hispanic heart, after Codex Borgia, author's
drawing.

probably representing pomegranates, a fruit commonly series of other featherworks realized by the amanteca
associated with Christ and his sacrifice, and often allow us to suppose an even deeper aesthetic experience
depicted in medieval manuscripts82?appear quite for the ceremony's participants. I'm referring to the
similar to pre-Hispanic drawings depicting flowers and miters conceived by amanteca for European collections.
human hearts (see fig. 12). Flowers and human hearts The theme of the Trinity as evinced by the iconography
were, moreover, equivalent offerings during human of the Salvator Mundi of Tepotzotlan (fig. 2) and that of
sacrifice. If we try to go beyond interpretations of the the transubstantiation (fig. 11) are considerably evident
type "idols behind altars''83 one can understand the in the feather miter (see fig. 13) owned by Federico
degree to which Indian artists and missionaries Borromeo who officiated penance ceremonies while
reciprocally integrated themes and techniques coming wearing it.85 Displayed on the heads of clergy, to be
from formerly separated traditions. The human body part looked at by the faithful, the feather miters were
(the heart) offered up to the gods during sacrifice can valorized in their passage through various angles of light.
thus be compared to a kind of "pre-Hispanic host."84 The reflecting surface of the works, with its shifting
This convergence of traditions may well have been degrees of color and intensity, cannot be considered as
appreciated by Pope Paul III, to whom the Saint decorative support. From a more theoretical perspective,
Gregory's Mass was offered by the Indian Governor of the plumed surface of the miters raises two fundamental
Tenochtitl?n, Diego Huanitzin, under de Gante's points: the visual experience of the work itself, which I
supervision, to demonstrate the outcome of will refer to as the encounter with the work, and the
Christianization efforts. work's disappearance, an ephemeral moment that drives
If we again go from a political interpretation of these spectators toward astonishment. This is what Contarini
featherworks to an aesthetic one, one can try to envision means by "vaghezza," which can be elucidated in terms
the effects these creations could have produced when of an aesthetic significance for the missionaries who
integrated into a Christian "performance." If the Salvator ordered the works, for the amanteca who created them,
Mundi remained on the inner wall of the church, poorly and, lastly, for the spectators who looked at them during
illuminated by the flames of surrounding candles, a liturgies whether in New Spain, Milan, Florence, or the
Iberian peninsula.86 Finally, one can wonder if the
82. The same floral motifs appear in the background of the Trinity featherwork miters created by the amanteca did not also
of the Master of Villasandino (Burgos), which dates from the end of the confer new powers upon the Christian clergy. As
fifteenth century.
expressed in the lines of the Cantares Mexicanos, Pedro
83. A. Brenner, Idols behind Altars (New York: Payson and Clarke
Ltd, 1929). See also F. Reyes Palma, "Dispositivos m?ticos en las de Gante and the Mexican Archbishop Montufar were
visiones del arte mexicano del siglo XVI," Curare 9 (Oct. 1996): 3-18. thought to have been transformed into birds upon their
84. One finds another point of convergence between the Christian deaths in 1572: "Our father the Archbishop in passing
Host and pre-Hispanic mythology in the collard-green breaddough
called Teocualo, meaning "eaten god." The Teocualo were, like the 85. Estrada de Gerlero, "La plumaria" (see note 3).
Christian Host, broken, shared, and eaten by the priests during 86. The feather miter conserved in Wien was owned by Pedro de
ceremonies to honor Huitzilopochtli. Sahag?n, Historia (see note 13), la Gasea (1494-1565), bishop of Sig?enza. The one conserved in
bk. 3, ch. 1. In a bas-relief of Tonal? (Jalisco), one sees the winged Florence at the Museo degli Argenti was owned by Fernando I
Host take flight like a bird. Granduca of Tuscany.
 Russo: Plumes of sacrifice 243

Figure 13. Feather miter, 43 x 30 cm., sixteenth century. Milan, Fabbrica del Duomo. See
Martin del Campo y S?nchez 1979 for a color reproduction (photo courtesy of Fabbrica del
Duomo).
244 RES 42 AUTUMN 2002

away, has become an egret swan. [. . .] Now he's flying multiform Trinity: due to the very material used in the
to heaven. Oh, it seems that Fray Pedro goes flying composition, it is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but also
along as a song bird, having left San Francisco. Now tonalli, Sun and ixiptlatl.9^ From within what one might
he's gone flying to heaven."87 call its "spiritual mestizaje/' the mosaic is a kind of
attractor in which the feather becomes the medium for
passage among different psychic, physical, and historical
"Here is why it is time to be transformed."88
states.92 Once again, I see the works of the first century
In this essay, I have tried to carry out my analysis of of colonization as a continued effort to metaphorically
the Salvator Mundi of Tepotzotlan through a sequence of rethink space and time (in mythical, geographical,
related stages: the first was to establish a relationship religious, and political terms) while undergoing abrupt
between creation and sacrifice; the second to analyze a historical transformation.93 Whether in reality or in
material (feathers) under a new light, and, third, to myth, but always subordinated to an aesthetic process,
examine an ensemble of images from an aesthetic point Quetzalcoatl, sacrificial victims, Cort?s, Christ, or Pedro
of view rather than according to their status as simple de Gante were all adorned with feathers94 in an attempt
representations. In the place of a conclusion, I'd like to to make manifest something that, before being plumed,
recall the main points I have discussed in an effort to escaped direct knowledge but which could become
indicate possible forms of continuing this work.89 tangible through the art of the amanteca. In the
It seems clear that the gloss "espritu santo" which devotional N?huatl literature, Jesus is a feather in Marie's
was intended to explain the image of a tropical bird in a womb,95 just as Huitzilopochtli had been in the womb
pictorial catechism (fig. 1b) does not suffice to express of Coatlicue. In the same texts, Jesus is the hummingbird
the intertwining relationships among language, ritualistic of the Resurrection, just as the pre-Hispanic warriors
elaboration of traditions, and artistic creation. Although had been.96 Are these interconnections at the origin of a
one cannot consider pictographic language as infinitely crucifix, sculpted in the sixteenth century by Indian
versatile, the tropical Holy Spirit read under the light of
amanteca aesthetics offers a small example of an 91. For the intertwining of the Christ figure with those of spiritual
iconographie system whose breadth goes beyond that of forces and heros of pre-Hispanic indigenous cultures, see: R.
phonetic writing.90 Parmentier, "The Mythological Triangle: Poseyemu, Montezuma, and
Jesus in the Pueblos," Handbook of North American Indians, v. 9
As for the Salvator Mundi of Tepotzotlan (fig. 2),
(1979), pp. 609-622; J. Monagham, The Convenants with Earth and
this plumed Christ becomes the expression of a Rain. Sacrifice and Revelation in Mixtee Society, ch. 5 "Jesus?The
Sun" (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995).
87. Cantares Mexicanos (see note 10), song 90, stanza E. 92. I will avoid using the ambiguous term synchretism; see
88. "Iz tleica naualmoquizca," Song of Ixcozauhqui in the Alessandro Lupo, "S?ntesis controvertidas. Consideraciones entorno al
Florentine Codex (see note 13) bk. 2; Garibay has a different concepto de sincretismo," Revista de Antropolog?a Social 5 (1996):
translation of these lines in Veinte Himnos (see note 43), p. 85. Given 11-37. I will instead borrow the term attractor as proposed by Serge
the importance of the ornamental side of sacrifice in my work, I prefer Gruzinski in La pens?e m?tisse (see note 2).
to read naualmoquizca as "to transform oneself/' whereas Garibay 93. Cfr. the concluding ideas in "El renacimiento vegetal . . ." (see
translates it as "to disguise oneself/' note 74) and in "El Realismo circular. Horizonte posible para la
89. The same type of analysis should be done for poetry in a cartograf?a ind?gena colonial," in Actas del XIX Coloquio Internacional
sacrificial context. For example, during the ceremony of de la Historia de la Cartograf?a (Madrid 1-6 Julio 2001), Madrid,
Tecuilhuitontli, in which sacrifices were made to honor the goddess Ministerio de la Defensa Exterior, Biblioteca Nacional de Espa?a (cd
Uixtocihuatl, the woman-ixiptlatl chosen for sacrifice would be rom).
adorned with feathers and would dance for ten days while chanting 94. In a bas-relief in Huaquechula the Christ-Quetzalcoatl relation
aloud ("todos estos diez d?as andaba en el baile y cantaba aquella que is evident: the "punzones de maguey" utilized by Quetzalcoatl in his
hab?a de morir con las otras: pasados los diez d?as toda una noche self-sacrifice (as well as the bone "punzones" thrown by soldiers)
entera bailaba y cantaba aquella que hab?a de morir, sin dormir, ni clearly look like the nails used during the sacrifice of Christ (Pablo
reposar. . ."). Sahag?n, Historia (see note 13), bk. 2, ch. 24. It's Escalante personal communication).
possible to hypothesize that it was this "poetic" trance that incarnated 95. Sahag?n, Psalmodia Christiana (see note 61), seventh psalm of
the presence of ixiptlatl. the prologue, p. 23.
90. As underlined by Carlo Severi, "Pictorial symbolism then 96. Sahag?n, Historia (see note 13), bk. 11, chap. 2, par. 22. A
translates only a limited, specialized vocabulary. This fundamental well-known error: the tiny "bird" that resuscitates at the beginning of
feature would be enough in itself to show how inadequate the the rainy season is really the larva of the butterfly referred to as "the
comparison with phonetic writing is here" ("Kuna Picture-Writing. A four mirrors" (Rothschilda Orizaba). (R. M. del Campo y S?nchez, "Los
Study in Iconography and Memory," in M. L. Salvador, ed. The Art of colibr?es en la antig?edad mexicana," in Tercera Mesa sobre
Being Kuna. Layers of Meaning among the Kuna of Panama [Los problemas antropol?gicos de la Sierra Norte del Estado de Puebla
Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1997], p. 269). (Cuetzalan: Editorial municipal, 1979), pp. 23-29.)
 Russo: Plumes of sacrifice 245

artists, which is seen to rise out of a circle of feathers? references to local geographical and spiritual realities. If
A short remark needs to be made here on the art historians such as Ringbom can affirm that the
relationship between the Salvator Mundi (fig. 2) and the Salvator Mundi motif, due to its precise definition and
activity of Pedro de Gante as it has been outlined in its iconographie stability, did not undergo any important
these pages. The Franciscan was the founder and teacher developments in western art after the fifteenth century,99
of what we could call the first School of Fine Arts of this leaves aside developments and contributions made
New Spain. He wrote to Philip II stressing the by the amanteca in New Spain whereby the Salvator
importance of making images for the convents of New Mundi is deeply enriched: the feathered Salvator Mundi
Spain. He fixed the meaning of his approach to becomes a trinitarian relic, and thanks to the m?tonymie
teaching, which was to move the neophytes away from role played by the plume (plume as Holy Spirit, as part
the "excessive" sacrifices of the pre-Hispanic tradition. of the Father and the Son), the mosaic evokes not only
He was without doubt the supervisor of the feather the m?tonymie liturgical base of Christianity, the
mosaic Saint Gregory's Mass (fig. 10), whose subject was Eucharist (the host-victim as part of the Son and the
closely related to the problematic of sacrifice as well as Father) but also the pre-Hispanic concept of ixiptlatl,
to a major m?tonymie theological concept: the host as understood as part and emanation of the thing
Christ's body. Pedro de Gante was also the founder of represented.100 Once again, the material composition of
the Holy Spirit Confraternity, whose success was quickly the mosaic becomes a major element of its own
noted by his contemporaries.97 All these elements singularity. As Pietro Martire de Angleria wrote as early
encourage the hypothesis that the same Pedro de Gante as 1530, it is extremely suggestive in these works to see
was the planner of the Salvator Mundi feather mosaic, "how the technique takes the greatest possible
which was probably created, like the Saint Gregory's advantage of the material/'101
Mass, in San Jos? de los Naturales. There are some Nothing, however, has been said about the artists
formal features in the two mosaics which support this themselves or their techniques. There is a series of very
hypothesis: the use of a written legend that frames the interesting chapters in the Florentine Codex illustrating
central image; the inlaying of precious metals in the the techniques of the amanteca. Whereas some objects,
feather mosaic (gold and copper in Saint Gregory's such as panaches, bracelets, and fans were fashioned of
Mass, and silver in parts of the halo and the cross of the feathers sewn around a cane substructure, others, such
Salvator Mundi); and the presence of a plume sky as as the mosaics, were of much more elaborate
backdrop to both images. Here the blue feathers could construction.102 The first recorded western accounts
be a reference to one of the most important instruments insist on the mastery featherworkers had over the effects
of conversion in New Spain: due to the number of of light and shadow: "They create images out of feathers
persons attending mass and thanks to the architectural with such admirable precision, as I myself saw them,
invention of the open chapel, the celebration of that they appear to be natural. They are capable of
Eucharist in New Spain often took place in open air, spending an entire day without food, as long as they are
outside the church.98 assembling feathers on one side or the other, cutting
Another point of novelty addressed in these pages them so they shine well in sunlight and in shade both
concerns the crossing of iconographies, aesthetic with and against the grain/'103 Here one again returns to
models, and rituals coming from different visual,
99. Ringbom (see note 73), p. 199.
political, and spiritual traditions. If most scholars have
100. To receive the Eucharist Indians were asked "que den cuenta
studied the transformation of pre-Hispanic images after espl?citamente de los art?culos de la Trinidad de las Personas, y de la
their contact with western ones, our interest has unidad de la esencia divina, y de la Encarnaci?n y Rasi?n del Hijo de
been to demonstrate that at the moment of a local Dios, y como el mismo est? en el Sacramento del Altar, desu?s que el

reinterpretation of the European models, the mestizo sacerdote, mediante las palabras de ese mismo Redentor, ha
consagrado el pan y vino," in "Informe de la Provincia del Santo
artists produce a transformation of European visual
Evangelio," in C?dice Franciscano (see note 4), p. 91.
culture as well. These transformations are achieved
101. De Orbis Novo. Petri Marty ris ab Angleria Mediolanensis
through mixing different iconographies, and different Protornotarii Cesaris Senatoris Decades, Cum privilegio imperial i.
(Compluti, apud Micaelem d'Eguia: 1530) f. 61 v.
97. Informe de la provncia del Santo Evangelio, in C?dice 102. Florentine Codex (see note 13), bk. 9. I have catalogued the
Franciscano (see note 4), p. 90. techniques used by the amanteca in: "El encuentro de dos mundos
98. On open chapels, J. MacAndrew, The Open Air Churches of art?sticos . . ." (see note 7).
Sixteenth Century Mexico. Atrios, Posas, Open Chapels and other 103. Lorenzo de Anania, Fabbrica del Mondo, ovvero
Studies (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, 1952). Cosmographia divisa in quattro trattati (Venezia: 1576).
 246 RES 42 AUTUMN 2002

the sun-shade opposition, but with some new They also share much more important and essential
information: the mosaics could shine even in the shade, characteristics: naturalness, originality, and the fact that
that is, even when the source of light was reduced to only a unique form of energy, be it tonalli, the Sun,
just a few oblique rays. Analysis of the physical structure nature, divine light or artistic work, could be at the
of the Salvator Mundi of Tepotzotlan (fig. 2) has allowed source of their color, illumination, and interwoven
for new insight into its reflective properties. The mosaic status. It was thanks to these characteristics that the
was apparently constructed by superposition of different featherwork images from New Spain captured the
sections of the image.104 From under-layer to surface, interest of European naturalists who, like the Bolognese
the different sections were slightly shifted from one Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605), worked on the dialectic
another when glued together. The final image had between nature and artistic creation. The featherworks of
therefore been decomposed into its color units before the amanteca, being "true in and of themselves" (as
assembly: sky blue, white skin, the different colors Dante might have expressed it),107 artistic but not
corresponding to motifs figuring on Christ's cape, the artificial, were perfectly adapted to the requirements of
colors of the globe, the halo, the arm and the hand. This objects serving to valorize the Theatrum Naturae 8 In
type of collage produces a surprising three-dimensional support of this theory, Aldrovandi put together one of
effect. The hand coming out of the sleeve, for instance, the most interesting sources for the study of the art
corresponds to the final layer of superposition, which of featherworking. In his book on ornithology,109
explains the relief effect it gives to the viewer. In other he dedicated several pages to the description of
words, the overall image was produced according to a Mesoamerican ceremonies, including the appropriate
technique analogous to the act of seeing itself: just as plumage and species of bird involved, as well as the
vision cannot see everything simultaneously, the first European reactions to the amanteca mosaics
amanteca divided their work into discrete portions that that soon became collector's items. And in the
were later reassembled into a composite whole,105 a Wunderkammern featherworks were to figure among
mode of creation that mirrors the action of visual those objects giving birth to the museum as a space for
perception itself. The featherwork is simultaneously the recontextualization of ritual objects which, through
ixiplatl, emanation and vessel,106 not only for the spatial and temporal uprooting, could be seen and
supernatural world but also for the gaze of those who reinterpreted by gazes other than those directly involved
look at it. in religious ceremonies. First of all, the gazes of the
These elements encourage us to return to some of the naturalists for whom the concept of the "marvelous"?
theoretical implications of featherwork art and to the although today linked with that of the curiosity, which
aesthetic that these images both express and exemplify. still has adverse effects for the deeper comprehension of
The feather-tona/// of pre-Hispanic sacrifices and the so-called "exotic"111 images?allowed for the greater
plumage of the Holy Spirit share more than an artistic circulation of amanteca artworks outside of sacrificial
referent that bridges the gap between deity and victim. temples and Christian churches. It is through this
circulation that featherwork images?like other
104. Which indicates that different artists worked on different unexpected objects for a renewed art history?can now
sections of the mosaic (Elena Isabel Estrada de Gerlero, personal challenge our ways of thinking, defying historical and
communication).
disciplinary classifications that all too often act as
105. An artistic process which resembles that of the Kuna molas.
impediments to understanding the possible passages of
Cfr. M. L. Salvador "Looking Back. Contemporary Kuna Women's Arts,"
ideas from one intellectual world to another.
M. L. Salvador, ed. (see note 90), pp. 150-211.
106. As said above, the etymology of ixiptlatl seems to owe
something to the word potli: "container." The image as "container" is 107. ?Che la mia vista venendo sincera / e pi? e pi? intrava per lo
one of the fundamental theoretical points in the thought of Aby raggio/ de l'alta luce che da s? ? vera?. Dante Alighieri, La Divina
Warburg. See Gerhard Wolf, "El culto de las im?genes en la historia Commedia, Paradiso, XXXIII, 52-54.
del arte. De Aby Warburg a una antropolog?a hist?rica de la imagen," 108. G. Olmi, L'inventario del mondo. Catalogazione della natura
in (In)disciplinas. Est?tica e historia del arte (see note 6), p. 252. It e luoghi del sapere nella prima et? moderna (Bologna: II Mu? i no,
should be noted that ornithological analysis could reveal other 1992); // Teatro della Natura di Ulisse Aldrovandi, (Raffaella Simili,
interesting m?tonymie relationships. For instance, the contemporary coord.) (Bologna: Editrice Compositori, 2001).
amanteca artist Juan Carlos Ortiz informed me that Christ's beard was 109. Ornithologiae. Hoc est de avibus libri historiae libri XII
made out of cock feathers, which is perhaps another point of (Bologna: apud Franciscum Senensem, 1599).
convergence with Passion iconography. Mirror as major metaphor of 110. A. Lugli, Naturalia et Mi rabil ia (Milano: Mazzotta, 1993).
painting and image is discussed by G. Wolf, "The Origins of Painting," 111. S. Price, Primitive Art in Civilized Places (Chicago and
Res 36 (1999): 59-78. London: The University of Chicago Press, 1987).
 Russo: Plumes of sacrifice 247

BIBLIOGRAPHY Bonne, Jean-Claude

HE: Instituto de Investigaciones Est?ticas 1996 "Les ornements de l'histoire. (? propos de l'ivoire
FCE: Fondo de Cultura Econ?mica carolingien de Saint R?mi)," Annales. Histoire,
UNAM: Universidad Nacional Aut?noma de M?xico Sciences Sociales 1, pp. 37-70.

Brenner, Anita
Manuscript sources 1929 Idols behind Altars. New York, P?yson and Clarke Ltd.

"Cat?chisme en langue otomi," Paris, Biblioth?que Nationale

Broda, Johanna
de France, Fond Mexicain n. 76.
1993 "The Provenance of the Offering of Templo Mayor:
Tribute and Cosmovision," in Elizabeth Hill Boone,
Contari ni, Gasparo
1525 "Relazione del Contarini ritornato ambasciatore ed., The Aztec Templo Mayor. Washington,
Dumbarton Oaks, 1987.
dell'imperatore Carlo V, l'anno 1525," Bologna
University Library, ms. 1321 III 732., f. 676 v.
Buruc?a, Jos? Emilio, Gabriela Siracusano, Andrea J?uregui
1999 "Colores en los Andes: sacralidades prehisp?nicas y
Printed sources cristianas," in (In)disciplinas. Est?tica e historia del
arte en el cruce de los discursos. M?xico, IIE-UNAM,
Alc?ntara Rojas, Berenice pp. 317-344.
1999 El Infierno en la evangelizaci?n de la Nueva Espa?a.
(Licenciatura Dissertation), M?xico, UNAM.
Cantares Mexicanos, The Songs of the Aztecs.
1984 John Bierhorst trans, and ed., Stanford, Stanford
Aldrovandi, Ulisse
University Press.
1599 Omithologiae. Hoc est de avibus libri historiae
duodecim. Bologna, apud Franciscum Senensem. Carrasco, David
1981 Quetzalcoatl. The Irony of an Empire: Myths and
Anania, Lorenzo de
Prophecies in the Aztec Tradition. Chicago,
1570 Fabbrica del Mondo, ovvero Cosmographia divisa in University of Chicago Press.
quattro trattati. Venice.
1999 City of Sacrifice. The Aztec Empire and the Role of
Violence in Civilization. Boston, Beacon Press.
Anawalt, Patricia
1985 "Memory Clothing: Costumes Associated with Aztec Cartry, Michel
Human Sacrifice/' in Elizabeth H. Boone, ed. Ritual 1991 "Sacrifice," in eds. Bonte, Izard, Dictionnaire da
Human Sacrifice in Mesoamerica. Dumbarton Oaks,
l'ethnologie et de l'anthropologie. Paris, Quadrige,
Washington D.C., pp. 165-193. PUF, pp. 643-646.

Angleria, Pedro M?rtir Castell? Yturbide, Teresa, ed.

1530 De Orbis Novo. Petri Marty ris ab Angleria 1993 El arte plumaria en M?xico. M?xico, Banamex.
Mediolanensis Protornotarii Cesaris Senatoris
Decades, Cum privilegio imperiali. Compluti, apud Catecismo de Fray Pedro de Gante
Micaelem d'Eguia. 1992 facsimile, Madrid, Testimonio Compa??a Editorial.

Aramoni, Elena
C?dice Chimalpopoca
1990 Talokan tata, talokan nana: nuestras ra?ces. M?xico,
1992 Primo Feliciano Vel?zquez, ed., Universidad
CONACULTA.
Nacional Aut?noma de M?xico (1945).

Bakhtine, Mikhail
Cortellazzo, Zoli
1997 "Histoire de l'art et esth?tique g?n?rale/' Esth?tique
1972 Dizionario etimol?gico della lingua italiana. Bologna,
et th?orie du roman, Paris, Gallimard (1978). Zanichelli.

Berdan, Frances
Crosby, Alfred
1992 "Economie Dimensions of Precious Metals, Stones,
1998 The Measure of Reality. Quantification in Western
and Feathers: The Aztec State Society/' Estudios de
Society. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Cultura N?huatl 22 (1992), pp. 291-323.
248 RES 42 AUTUMN 2002

Chamoux, Marie-No?lle Gruzinski, Serge

1989 "La notion nahua d'individu: un aspect du tonalli 1990 La guerre des images. Paris, Fayard.
dans la r?gion de Huauchinango, Puebla," in 1991 L'Am?rique de la Conqu?te peinte par les indiens du
Enqu?tes sur l'Am?rique moyenne. M?langes offerts ? Mexique. Paris, Flammarion.
Guy Stresser-P?an, Dominique Michelet, ed., M?xico, 1999 La pens?e m?tisse. Paris, Fayard.
INAH-CEMCA, pp. 303-311. 2001 "Les mondes m?l?s de la Monarchie Catholique et
autres ?connected histories?," Annales. Histoire,
Chase Col lings, Clemency, ed. Sciences Sociales 1, p. 87.
1992 Artifacts from the Cenote of Sacrifice, Chichen Itza,
Yucat?n. Textiles, Basketry, Stone, Bone, Shell, Heikamp, Detlef
Ceramic, Wood, Copal, Rubber, Other Organic 1972 Mexico and the Medici. Florence, Edam.
Materials and Mammalian Remains. Peabody
Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambridge Hubert, Henri, Marcel Mauss
(Mass.) Harvard University Press. 1899 "Essai sur la nature et la fonction du sacrifice,"
L'ann?e sociologique 2, pp. 29-138.
Duran, Diego
1967 Historia de la Indias, de Islas y de Tierra Firme, Angel Le?n Portilla, Miguel
Maria Garibay ed., M?xico, Porr?a. 1956 La filosof?a n?huatl. Mexico, Instituto Indigenista
Interamericano.
Durand, Guillaume
1859 Rationale divinorum officiorum. Naples. Les Heures de Rohan
1973 Commentary by Mi I lard Meiss and Marcel Thomas.
Duverger, Christian Paris, Draegen Fr?res.
1983 La fleur l?tale. Economie du sacrifice azt?que. Paris,
Seuil. Les Tr?s Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
1990 Ed. Georges Bazin, Paris, Somogy.
Estrada de Gerlero, Elena Isabel
1992 "Una obra de plumaria de San Jos? de los Naturales," L?vi-Strauss, Claude
in Arte y coerci?n. Primer coloquio del Comit? 1962 La Pens?e Sauvage. Paris, Pion (1998).
mexicano de historia del arte, M?xico, HE.
1994 "La plumaria, expresi?n art?stica por excelencia," in Lockhart, James
M?xico en el mundo de las collecciones de arte, 1992 The Nahuas after the Conquest. A Social and Cultural
M?xico, Azabache, 1994. History of the Indians of Central Mexico. Sixteenth
through Eighteenth Centuries. Stanford, Stanford
Florentine Codex. General History of the Things of New Spain University Press.
1950-1982 Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble,
trans, and eds. Santa Fe: The Schools of American L?pez Austin, Alfredo
Research and the University of Utah. 1980 Cuerpo humano e ideolog?a. Las creencias de los
antiguos nahuas. Mexico, UNAM (1996).
Foster, George 1994 Tamoanchan y Tlalocan. Mexico, Fondo de Cultura
1944 "Nagualism in Mexico and Guatemala," Acta Econ?mica.
Americana II, 1-2, pp. 85-103
Lugli, Adalgisa
Gante, Pedro de 1993 Naturalia et Mirabilia. Milano, Mazzotta.
1941 "Carta a Felipe II (1556)," in C?dice Franciscano del
siglo XVI, M?xico. Lupi, Didacus
1976 "Lettera giunta a Siviglia dalla Nuova Spagna appena
Garibay, Angel Maria, ed. scoperta, (20 avril 1520)," in Miscellanea Marciana di
1958 Veinte Himnos Sacros de los Nahuas. M?xico, Stud i Bessarionei, Padova, pp. 239-261.
UNAM.
Lupo, Alessandro
Gonzales Torres, Y?lotl 1996 "S?ntesis controvertidas. Consideraciones entorno al
1985 El sacrificio humano entre los mexicas. M?xico, FCE. concepto de sincretismo," Revista de Antropolog?a
Social 5, pp. 11-37.
 Russo: Plumes of sacrifice 249

MacAndrew, John Price, Sally

1952 The Open Air Churches of Sixteenth Century Mexico. 1987 Primitive Art in Civilized Places. Chicago and
Atrios, Posas, Open Chapels and Other Studies. London, The University of Chicago Press.
Cambridge (Mass.), Univeristy of Harvard Press.
Resines Ll?rente, Lu?s
Maquivar, Maria Consuelo 1992 Catecismos americanos del siglo XVI. Salamanca,
1998 "La trinidad trifacial en la Nueva Espa?a: un tipo de Junta de Castilla y Le?n.
trindiad her?tica," in La abolici?n del arte, M?xico,
IIE-UNAM, pp. 199-218. Reyes Palma, Francisco
1996 "Dispositivos m?ticos en las visiones del arte
Mart?n del Campo y S?nchez, Rafael mexicano del siglo XVI," Curare 9, pp. 3-18.
1979 "Los colibr?es en la antig?edad mexicana," in Tercera
Mesa sobre problemas antropol?gicos de la Sierra Ringbom, Sixten
Norte del Estado de Puebla, Cuetzalan, pp. 23-29. 1997 De l'ic?ne a la sc?ne narrative. Paris, G?rard Monfort
(1st ed. 1965).
Mart?nez del R?o de Redo, Marita
1993 "La plumaria virreinal," in Teresa Castell? Yturbide, R?belo, Cecilio
ed., El arte plumaria en M?xico, M?xico, Banamex. 1982 Diccionario de Mitolog?a Nahua. M?xico, Porr?a.
dsted. 1902).
Martinez, Jos? Luis, ed.
1990 Documentos cortesanos (tomo I, 1518-1528). Rubel, Arthur J., Carl W. O'Nell
UNAM-SEP. 1984 Susto. A Folk Illness. Los Angeles, University of
California Press.
Mckeever F?rst, Jill Leslie
1998 "The nahualli of Christ. The Trinity and the Nature of Russo, Alessandra
the Soul in Ancient Mexico." Res 33 (spring), pp. 1998a "El encuentro de dos mundos art?sticos en el arte
208-223. plumario del siglo XVI," Prohistoria 2 University of
Rosario, Argentine, pp. 63-91.
Mellinkoff, Ruth 1998b "El renacimiento vegetal. Arboles de Jes? entre el
1985 "Demonic Winged Headgear," Viator 16, pp. Viejo Mundo y el Nuevo," Anales del Instituto de
367-381. Investigaciones Est?ticas 73 (1998), pp. 4-39.
2002 "El Realismo circular. Horizonte posible para la
Monagham, John cartograf?a ind?gena colonial," in Actas del XIX
1995 The Convenants with Earth and Rain. Sacrifice and Coloquio Internacional de la Historia de la
Revelation in Mixtee Society, Norman: University of Cartograf?a (Madrid 1-6 Julio 2001), Madrid,
Oklahoma Press. Ministerio de la Defensa Exterior, Biblioteca Nacional
de Espa?a (cd-rom).
Mongne, Pascal
1994 "La Messe de Saint Gr?goire du Mus?e des Jacobins Sahag?n, Bernardino de
d'Auch," in La Revue du Louvre et des Mus?es de 1997 Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva Espa?a (A.
France 5/6, pp. 38-47. M. Garibay ed.), M?xico, Porr?a.
1993 Psalmodia Christiana, trans. Arthur Anderson,
Olmi, Giuseppe University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
1992 L'inventario del mondo. Catalogazione della natura e
luoghi del sapere nella prima et? moderna. Bologna, Salvador, Mari Lyn, ed.
Il Mulino. 1997a The Art of Being Kuna. Layers of Meaning among the
Kuna of Panama. UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural
Rarmentier, Richard History, Los Angeles.
1979 "The Mythological Triangle: Poseyemu, Montezuma, 1997b "Looking Back. Contemporary Kuna Women's Arts,"
and Jesus in the Pueblos," Handbook of North in M. L. Salvador 1999a., pp. 150-211.
American Indians, v. 9, 609-622.
Saunders, Nicholas J.
P?rez Carrillo, Sonia 1998 "Stealers of Light, Traders in Brillance. Amerindian
1988 "Aproximaci?n a la iconograf?a de la misa de San Metaphysics in the Mirror of Conquest." Res 33
Gregorio en Am?rica," in Cuadernos de Arte colonial (spring), pp. 225-252.
del Museo de Am?rica 4, pp. 91-106.
250 RES 42 AUTUMN 2002

S?gota, Durdica
1995 Valores pl?sticos del arte mexica. M?xico, Instituto
de Investigaciones Est?ticas, UNAM.

S?journ?, Lau rette

1958 "Los sacrificios humanos: religi?n o pol?tica?," in
Cuadernos AmericanosW, pp. 127-149.

Seier, Eduard
1988 Comentarios al C?dice Borgia (1904). M?xico, Fondo
de Cultura Econ?mica.

Severi, Cario
1999 "Kuna Picture-Writing. A Study in Iconography and
Memory," in M. L. Salvador 1999a, pp. 245-272.

Simeon, Remi
1997 Diccionario de la lengua n?huatl o mexicana (1885).
M?xico, Siglo XXI.

// Teafro della Natura di Ulisse Aldrovandi

2001 (Raffaella Simili, coord.), Bologna, Editrice
Compositori.

Textos de los Informantes de Sahag?n: 1 Ritos, sacerdotes y

atav?os de los dioses
1992 ed. Miguel Le?n Portilla, M?xico, UNAM, 1992.

Tr?sor des M?dicis. La Florence des M?dicis, une ville et une

cour d'Europe.
1998 Editions d'Art Somogy, Paris.

Wolf, Gerhard
1999 "El culto de las im?genes en la historia del arte. De
Aby Warburg a una antropolog?a hist?rica de la
imagen," in (In)disciplinas. Est?tica e historia del arte
en el cruce de los discursos. M?xico, IIE-UNAM pp.
247-260.
1999b "The Origins of Painting," Res 36, pp. 59-78.

Woodward, David
1988 "Medieval Mappaemundi," in The History of
Cartography, Chicago and London, The University of
Chicago Press, pp. 286-370.

Zito, Angela
1997 Of Body and Brush. Grand Sacrifice as
Text/Performance in Eigthteenth-Century China.
Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.