The Codex Huexotzinco: Deciphering a Lost World of Art to Reveal its Secret Codes

About

Barbara Mundy, Jay I. Kislak Chair for the Study of the History and Cultures of the Early Americas at the Library of Congress, and Martha and Donald Robertson Chair in Latin American Art at Tulane University, tells the story of the Codex Huexotzinco, a rare painted manuscript from 16th century Mexico. The manuscript was created in 1531, less than a decade after the fall of the Aztec empire to Spanish conquistadors. Written using a pictographic system, it shows the tribute goods delivered to new Spanish overlords from the town of Huexotzinco (today, Huejotzingo, Puebla). Among them were luxury textiles, and a painting created out of brilliant iridescent feathers. Because of what it depicts, and how it is painted, the Codex offers a unique understanding of artistic production in Mexico from before the Spanish Conquest, and shows the course of its development under Spanish rule.

Human-made No record of this work says a model made it. What this means.

Archive

Library of Congress, in Library of Congress

Licence or status

Rights statement at the Library of Congress, as the Library of Congress states it.

Credit

Library of Congress

Language

English

Country

United States

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