Newberry Library - Conquest of Azcapotzalco

Title Conquest of Azcapotzalco

Date 1780-1831

Subjects Aztecs, Bark painting, Indians of Mexico

Description Title from Cline.
Waldeck's ownership stamp in center of lower margin on recto of ms.
In mylar sleeve in folder (63 x 52 cm.).
John B. Glass provides description of the ms. in Handbook of Middle American Indians, vol. 14, p. 303, no. 901. Photograph of ms. published in same volume (fig. 99).
Original mounting for ms. includes Waldeck's ownership stamp and inventory numbers, as well as his pencilled notes on the title, relevance, and price of the ms.
Forms part of the Edward E. Ayer Manuscript Collection (Newberry Library)
Additional Waldeck materials at the Newberry Library include letters, journals, drawings, and other original Indian pictorial documents formerly owned by Waldeck.

Summary Fragment of a colored pictograph ms., showing the defeat and assassination by the Aztec Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina of Macatl, a chieftain of Azcapotzalco during the Tepanec War of 1428 A.D. The two warriors are shown fighting with shield, bow and arrows, and spear. Below them is a river and a trail of footsteps, linking them with two seated figures who portray Maxtlaton, ruler of Azcapotzalco, and Itzcoatl, emperor of Tenochtitlán. Included among the glyphs are those for Azcapotzalco and for the temazcal or sweat bath in which Maxtlaton took refuge after his defeat. According to Glass (HMAI, vol. 14, p. 301), the ms. is a falsification, the pictorial forms of which were derived from the then unpublished Codex Xolotl, a 16th-century historical ms. from the Texcoco region, now in the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris, and from other pictorial mss. published by Clavigero in 1780-81. In addition, calendrical signs and dates used in the ms. lack structural significance, and the style and proportions are not typical of Indian ms. painting of the pre-Conquest or 16th century.

Extent 1 art original : ink and watercolors on amatl paper ; 24 x 34 cm

Format Drawings, Forgeries

Archival Collection Title Edward E. Ayer Collection

Link to Catalog View record

Call Number Ayer MS 1904

BibID 120301

Rights Status No Copyright - United States

Contributing Institution Newberry Library

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IIIF Resource Type Canvas

Size 4152px × 2961px 35.20 MB

Filename 991203018805867_Ayer_MS_1904_00003.tif

Unique Identifier NL11E27U

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