Cool Aztec Patterns to Draw
The Aztec civilisation, centred at the capital of Tenochtitlan, dominated most of Mesoamerica in the 15th-16th centuries. With military conquest and trade expansion, the art of the Aztecs likewise spread, helping the Aztec civilization achieve a cultural and political hegemony over their subjects and creating for posterity a tangible record of the creative imagination and peachy talent of the artists from this last dandy Mesoamerican civilization.
Influences
Mutual threads run through the history of Mesoamerican civilization and especially in fine art. The Olmec, Maya, Toltec, and Zapotec civilizations, amongst others, perpetuated an artistic tradition which displayed a honey of monumental stone sculpture, imposing architecture, highly decorated pottery, geometric stamps for fabric and body art, and breathtaking metalwork which were all used to represent people, animals, plants, gods and features of religious ceremony, peculiarly those rites and deities continued to fertility and agriculture.
Aztec artists were also influenced by their contemporaries from neighbouring states, particularly artists from Oaxaca (a number of whom permanently resided at Tenochtitlan) and the Huastec region of the Gulf Declension where there was a strong tradition of 3-dimensional sculpture. These various influences and the Aztecs' own eclectic tastes and admiration of aboriginal art fabricated their art 1 of the most varied of all aboriginal cultures anywhere. Sculptures of gruesome gods with abstract imagery could come up from the aforementioned workshop as naturalistic works which depicted the beauty and grace of the beast and homo form.
Features of Aztec Art
Metalwork was a particular skill of the Aztecs. The great Renaissance artist Albrecht Drurer saw some of the artefacts brought back to Europe which caused him to say, '...I have never seen in all my days that which so rejoiced my heart, every bit these things. For I saw among them amazing artistic objects, and I marvelled over the subtle ingenuity of the men in these distant lands'. Unfortunately, as with about other artefacts, these objects were melted down for currency, so very few examples survive of the Aztecs' fine metalworking skills in gold and silver. Smaller items have been discovered, amid them aureate labrets (lip piercings), pendants, rings, earrings and necklaces in golden representing everything from eagles to tortoise shells to gods, which are testimony to the skills in lost-wax casting and filigree work of the finest artisans or tolteca.
The Aztecs too employed art equally a tool to reinforce their military & cultural dominance beyond Mesoamerica.
Aztec sculpture has been a better survivor, and its bailiwick was very oftentimes individuals from the extensive family of gods they worshipped. Carved in rock and woods these figures, sometimes monumental in size, were not idols containing the spirit of the god, as in Aztec faith the spirit of a particular deity was idea to reside in sacred bundles kept within shrines and temples. Still, it was idea necessary to 'feed' these sculptures with claret and precious objects, hence tales from the Spanish conquistadors of huge statues splattered with blood and encrusted with jewels and gold. Other large sculptures, more in the round, include the magnificent seated god Xochipilli and the various chacmools, reclining figures with a hollow carved in the chest which was used as a receptacle for the hearts of sacrificial victims. These, equally with most other Aztec sculpture, would have once been painted using a wide range of bright colours.
Smaller-calibration sculpture has been found at sites beyond Primal United mexican states. These often take the grade of local deities and especially gods related to agriculture. The virtually common are upright female figures of a maize deity, typically with an impressive headdress, and the maize god Xipe Totec. Lacking the finesse of imperial-sponsored art, these sculptures and like pottery figures often represent the more benevolent side of the Aztec gods.
Aztec Ceremonial Knife
Miniature work was too pop where subjects such as plants, insects, and shells were rendered in precious materials such as carnelite, pearl, amethyst, rock crystal, obsidian, crush, and the most highly valued of all materials, the gem jade. One other material which was highly prized was exotic feathers, particularly the green plumage of the quetzal bird. Feathers cut upward into small-scale pieces were used to create mosaic paintings, as decoration for the shields of Aztec warriors, costumes and fans, and in magnificent headdresses such as the one ascribed to Motecuhzoma Ii which is now in the Museum für Völkerkunde in Vienna.
Turquoise was a particularly favoured fabric with Aztec artists, and the use of it in mosaic form to cover sculpture and masks has created some of the most striking imagery from Mesoamerica. A typical example is the decorated human skull which represents the god Tezcatlipoca and which now resides in the British Museum, London. Another fine case is the mask of Xiuhtecuhtli, the god of fire, with sleepy-looking female parent-of-pearl optics and a perfect ready of white conch shell teeth. Finally, at that place is the magnificent double-headed snake pectoral, likewise now in the British Museum. With carved cedar wood completely covered in pocket-size squares of turquoise and the red mouths and white teeth rendered in spondylus and conch shell respectively, the piece was probably once part of a formalism costume. The snake was a potent image in Aztec art as the creature, able to shed its skin, represented regeneration and was likewise particularly associated with the god Quetzalcoatl.
Despite the absence of the potter'south bike, the Aztecs were as well skilled with ceramics as indicated by large hollow figures and several beautifully carved lidded-urns which were excavated by the side of the Templo Mayor at Tenochtitlan, probably used as receptacles for funeral ashes. Other examples of ceramic works are the moulded censers with tripod legs from Texcoco, spouted jugs, and elegant hourglass-shaped cups. These vessels are typically thin-walled, well proportioned, take a foam or red and blackness skid, and carry finely painted geometric designs in earlier designs and flora and fauna in afterward examples. The most highly-prized ceramics by the Aztecs themselves, and the blazon which Motecuhzoma himself used, were the ultra-sparse Cholula ware from Cholollan in the Valley of Puebla. Vessels could too be fabricated from moulds or carved while the clay was nonetheless leather-hard. A fine example of these anthropomorphic vessels is the celebrated vase representing the caput of the rain god Tlaloc painted a brilliant bluish, with goggle eyes and fearsome cherry-red fangs, now in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico Urban center.
Tlaloc
Musical instruments were another of import part of the Aztec artist's repertoire. These included ceramic flutes and wooden teponaztlis and huehuetls, respectively, long and upright ceremonial drums. They are richly busy with carvings, and one of the finest is the Malinalco drum which is covered in dancing jaguars and eagles who stand for sacrificial victims as indicated by banners and speech scrolls of warfare and fire symbols.
Art as Propaganda
The Aztecs, as with their cultural predecessors, employed art as a tool to reinforce their military machine and cultural dominance. Imposing buildings, frescoes, sculpture and even manuscripts, especially at such cardinal sites as Tenochtitlan, not only represented and even replicated the central elements of Aztec religion, simply they also reminded bailiwick peoples of the wealth and power which permitted their structure and manufacture.
The supreme example of this use of art as a conveyor of political and religious messages is the Templo Mayor at Tenochtitlan which was much more than a hugely impressive pyramid. Information technology was carefully designed in every item to stand for the sacred snake mountain of the earth Coatepec, then important in Aztec religion and mythology. This mount was the site where Coatlicue (the earth) gave birth to her son Huitzilopochtli (the sun), who defeated the other gods (the stars) led by his sis Coyolxauhqui (the moon). A temple to Huitzilopochtli was built on summit of the pyramid along with another in honour of the pelting god Tlaloc. Farther associations with the myth are the snake sculptures lining the base and the Great Coyolxauhqui Rock carved in c. 1473, also constitute at the base of operations of the pyramid and which represents in relief the dismembered body of the fallen goddess. The stone, forth with other such sculptures every bit the Tizoc Rock, related this catholic imagery to the contemporary defeat of local enemies. In the case of the Coyolxauhqui Stone, the defeat of the Tlatelolca is beingness referenced. Finally, the Templo Mayor was itself a repository of art as, when its interior was explored, a vast hoard of sculpture and fine art objects were discovered entombed with the remains of the dead and these pieces are, in many cases, works that the Aztecs had themselves collected from more than ancient cultures than their own.
Tizoc Stone
Temples extolling the Aztec view of the world were also constructed in conquered territories. The Aztecs usually left existing political and administrative structures in identify, merely they did impose their ain gods in a hierarchy in a higher place local deities, and this was largely done through compages and art, backed up with sacrificial ceremonies at these new sacred places, typically constructed on previous sacred sites and often in spectacular settings such every bit on mount peaks.
The Sun Stone was carved c. 1427 & shows a solar disk which presents the five consecutive worlds of the sun from Aztec mythology.
Aztec imagery which spread across the empire includes many lesser-known deities than Huitzilopochtli and there are a surprising number of examples of nature and agronomical gods. Perhaps the most famous are the reliefs of the water goddess Chalchiuhtlicue on the Malinche Hill nearly ancient Tula. These and other works of Aztec art were nigh often made past local artists and may have been commissioned by authorities representing the state or by individual colonists from the Aztec heartland. Architectural fine art, rock carvings of gods, animals and shields, and other art objects have been institute across the empire from Puebla to Veracruz and peculiarly around cities, hills, springs, and caves. Further, these works are normally unique, suggesting the absenteeism of whatsoever organised workshops.
Masterpieces
The large circular Stone of Tizoc (carved c. 1485 from basalt) is a masterful mix of cosmic mythology and real-world politics. It was originally used as a surface on which to perform human sacrifice and every bit these victims were usually defeated warriors it is entirely appropriate that the reliefs around the border of the stone describe the Aztec ruler Tizoc attacking warriors from the Matlatzinca, an area conquered past Tizoc in the late 15th century CE. The defeated are also portrayed as Chichimecs i.e. landless barbarians, whilst the victors wear the noble dress of the revered ancient Toltec. The upper surface of the stone, 2.67 m in bore, depicts an eight-pointed sunday-disk. The Stone of Tizoc now resides in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.
Coatlicue
The massive basalt statue of Coatlicue (carved in the concluding one-half-century of Aztec rule) is widely considered one of the finest examples of Aztec sculpture. The goddess is presented in terrifying course with two snakeheads, clawed feet and hands, a necklace of dismembered hands and human hearts with a skull pendant, and wearing a skirt of writhing snakes. Perhaps ane of a group of four and representing the revelation of female person power and terror, the 3.5 g high statue leans slightly forwards so that the overall dramatic issue of the slice is then emotive that it is understandable why the statue was actually re-buried several times following its original excavation in 1790. The statue of Coatlicue now resides in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico Metropolis.
The Sun Stone, also known equally the Aztec Calendar Stone (despite the fact that it is not a functioning calendar), must be the most recognisable art object produced by any of the groovy civilizations of Mesoamerica. Discovered in the 18th century almost the cathedral of Mexico City, the stone was carved c. 1427 and shows a solar disk which presents the v sequent worlds of the sun from Aztec mythology. The basalt stone is three.78 thou in diameter, nigh a metre thick and was once role of the Templo Mayor complex of Tenochtitlan. At the centre of the stone is a representation of either the sun god Tonatiuh (the Solar day Dominicus) or Yohualtonatiuh (the Nighttime Dominicus) or the primordial earth monster Tlaltecuhtli, in the latter case representing the terminal destruction of the earth when the 5th sun savage to earth. Effectually the central face at four points are the other iv suns which successively replaced each other after the gods Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca struggled for control of the cosmos until the era of the 5th sun was reached. On either side of the central face are 2 jaguar heads or paws, each clutching a heart, representing the terrestrial realm. The two heads at the bottom centre represent burn down serpents, and their bodies run around the perimeter of the stone with each ending in a tail. The four primal and the inter-fundamental directions are also indicated with larger and lesser points respectively.
Aztec Sun Stone
As 1 concluding case of the wealth of Aztec art which has survived the best subversive efforts of their conquerors, there is the life-sized eagle warrior from Tenochtitlan. The effigy, seemingly about to have flying, is in terracotta and was fabricated in four separate pieces. This Hawkeye Knight wears a helmet representing the bird of casualty, has wings and even clawed anxiety. Remains of stucco advise that the figure was in one case covered in existent feathers for an fifty-fifty more life-like effect. Originally, it would have stood with a partner, either side of a doorway.
Conclusion
Post-obit the fall of the Aztec Empire the production of indigenous fine art went into decline. However, some designs of the Aztec culture lived on in the piece of work of local artists employed by Augustinian friars to decorate their new churches during the 16th century. Manuscripts and plumage paintings also continued to exist produced, merely it was non until the late 18th century that an interest in Precolumbian art and history would lead to a more than systematic investigation of just what lay under the foundations of modern Mexican cities. Slowly, an ever-growing number of Aztec artefacts accept revealed, in example there had ever been any doubt, proof-positive testify that the Aztecs were amongst the nearly ambitious, creative, and eclectic artists that Mesoamerica had ever produced.
This article has been reviewed for accurateness, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication.
Source: https://www.worldhistory.org/Aztec_Art/
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