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Lovey is going to see Children of the Plumed Serpent: the Legacy of Quetzalcoatl
In Ancient Mexico follows the historical trajectory of the life and epic stories of the culture-hero and deity, Quetzalcoatl. The exhibition examines the art and material objects of late pre-Columbian and early colonial societies across Mexico to explore Quetzalcoatlâs role as founder and benefactor of the Nahua-, Mixtec-, and Zapotec-dominated kingdoms of southern Mexico. These socially and culturally complex communities successfully resisted both Aztec and Spanish subjugation, flourishing during an era of unprecedented international entrepreneurship and cultural innovation. On view are painted manuscripts (codices), polychrome ceramics, textiles, and exquisite works of gold, turquoise, and shell that reflect the achievements of the Children of the Plumed Serpent.Introduction: The legends surrounding Quetzalcoatl, the human incarnation of the Plumed Serpent, provide key insights into the sophistication and complexity of societies in Mexico in the period between 900 and 1521 AD. At Tollan, in what is now Tula, Hidalgo, the Toltec people prospered under Quetzalcoatlâs reign; they developed trading partnerships across Mexico and Central America. However, according to legendary accounts, Quetzalcoatl was banished from Tula after committing transgressions while under the influence of a rival. During his exile, he embarked upon an epic journey through southern Mexico, where he visited many independent kingdoms. A loose confederacy of royal families from across Mexico embraced Quetzalcoatl as their patron deity and dynastic founder, united by his cult. Inspired by Quetzalcoatlâs association with commerce, this diverse, multilingual population cultivated vast trade networks that facilitated the exchange of materials and ideas across great distances, resulting in cultural developments, such as an international art style and a pictographic writing system that brought together disparate communities of Mesoamerica.
The World of Tula and Chichen Itza: Tula, also known as Tollan, or Place of Reeds, was considered an ancestral place of origin for many of the civilizations of Mexico and the capital city of the Toltec people. The Toltec were revered for their sophisticated culture and artistryâattributes associated with the cityâs legendary founder and ruler, Quetzalcoatl, or the Plumed Serpent. Tula became the seat of the cult of Quetzalcoatl, attracting pilgrims from across Mesoamerica and emerging as a dynamic international center between AD 900 and 1200.Like Tula, the Maya city of Chichen Itza on the Yucatan Peninsula claimed an important relationship to the Plumed Serpent (who was called Kukulcan in Maya), and its art and architecture include numerous depictions of him. For over two centuries, merchants and traders from across the Americas flocked to Tula and Chichen Itza; they brought precious materials, such as greenstone, gold, turquoise, seashell, and feathers, and imported goods, like ceramic vessels, to the city centers.
The New Tollan: After the fall of Tula in AD 1200, many Toltecs migrated south to Cholula, where they built a new Tollan. They dedicated the city to Quetzalcoatl, the Plumed Serpent, in whose honor they erected a temple. Cholula soon emerged as the primary center of religious authority and pilgrimage in Mesoamerica, and could be compared to Rome for Christians or Mecca for Muslims.As the most important pilgrimage destination in the region, Cholula became a crossroads. The constant flow of exotic materials fostered the development of one of the most significant marketplaces in the Americas, an achievement befitting the cityâs deity, Quetzalcoatl, who was also known as the patron of merchants. By the fourteenth century, a new style of art had emerged alongside a pictographic system of communication, connecting the geographically distant kingdoms of the Children of the Plumed Serpent. Known as the International Style, it was characterized by a vivid palette and bold symbols that reduced ideas and spoken words to icons. This shared visual vocabulary facilitated the exchange of information across ethnic and linguistic boundaries.
Feasting, Divination and Heroic History: The performance of religious stories was an integral part of royal feasts among the Children of the Plumed Serpent. Poets used illustrated manuscripts like storyboards to recite royal genealogies and heroic histories. Festivities even included a kind of literary symposium in which nobles donned costumes and enacted specific roles, dancing and singing their parts to musical accompaniment. Revelers believed that by drinking to excess with goblets of pulque (a beverage fermented from the agave plant) or eating chocolate along with hallucinogens, they could conjure the dead and commune with their ancestors to seek advice or ask for benedictions.Feasting helped to build alliances and facilitate economic exchange. The production of art was directly supervisedâif not actually carried outâby men and women of the royal class itself. Art objects were often exchanged between nobles at feasts and royal fairs. Luxury goods, such as works of precious stone and metal, the feathers of tropical birds, and exquisitely woven and embroidered textiles, served as currency in the buying and selling of prestige and political power.
Avenues of Trade: By the mid-thirteenth century, political power had become less centralized in the southern Mexican highlands. Scores of independent royal houses produced extraordinary, finely crafted jewelry, polychrome ceramics, textiles, and featherwork. These luxury goods were exchanged as gifts to strengthen strategic alliances. Royal courts engaged in fiercely competitive gift-giving in order to enhance their position in political networks. The greater oneâs ability to acquire exotic materials and craft them into exquisite artworks, the better one could negotiate favorable marriages, and thereby achieve a higher status among neighboring communities.Trade routes facilitated the spread of the International Style and continued to unite far-flung independent states. From the Yucatan Peninsula to the Pacific Coast and the American Southwest, communities exchanged precious materials such as turquoise and shell for other elite commodities like rare plumage and cacao.
The Aztec Conquest and the Spanish Incursion: By the fifteenth century, a new power had emerged in the Valley of Mexico: the Aztec Empire. Under the ruler Ahuitzotl, the Aztecs expanded south to dominate Cholula, the Valley of Oaxaca and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The conquest of these Mixtec and Zapotec kingdoms threatened regional alliances; however, the confederaciesâ military acumen and deft negotiating enabled them to retain their trading networks.Further Aztec conquest ended with the arrival of Hernán Cortés and the Spanish army in 1519. This date corresponds to the year 1 Reed in the Mexican calendar, the year associated with Quetzalcoatlâs mythic birth. Ahuitzotlâs successor, Motecuhzoma II, interpreted the news of the Spaniardsâ arrival as the return of Quetzalcoatl and sent gifts to Cortés.Local communities, resentful of Aztec imperialism, readily forged alliances with the Spaniards and soon brought down the Aztec Empire. The southern kingdoms reconstituted their confederacies and trading networks under the new regime and emerged as an integral part of the new economy. Native ruling lords, or caciques, allied themselves with Spanish clergy and acted as intermediaries between the indigenous past and colonial present. Today, descendants of the Children of the Plumed Serpent continue to thrive in southern Mexico.
Children of the Plumed Serpent exhibit at LACMA (May 19, 2012)
©2012 Rebecca Dru Photography All Rights Reserved www.rebeccadru.com
www.facebook.com/rebeccadruphotography www.twitter.com/rebeccadru
Lovey is going to see Children of the Plumed Serpent: the Legacy of Quetzalcoatl
In Ancient Mexico follows the historical trajectory of the life and epic stories of the culture-hero and deity, Quetzalcoatl. The exhibition examines the art and material objects of late pre-Columbian and early colonial societies across Mexico to explore Quetzalcoatlâs role as founder and benefactor of the Nahua-, Mixtec-, and Zapotec-dominated kingdoms of southern Mexico. These socially and culturally complex communities successfully resisted both Aztec and Spanish subjugation, flourishing during an era of unprecedented international entrepreneurship and cultural innovation. On view are painted manuscripts (codices), polychrome ceramics, textiles, and exquisite works of gold, turquoise, and shell that reflect the achievements of the Children of the Plumed Serpent.Introduction: The legends surrounding Quetzalcoatl, the human incarnation of the Plumed Serpent, provide key insights into the sophistication and complexity of societies in Mexico in the period between 900 and 1521 AD. At Tollan, in what is now Tula, Hidalgo, the Toltec people prospered under Quetzalcoatlâs reign; they developed trading partnerships across Mexico and Central America. However, according to legendary accounts, Quetzalcoatl was banished from Tula after committing transgressions while under the influence of a rival. During his exile, he embarked upon an epic journey through southern Mexico, where he visited many independent kingdoms. A loose confederacy of royal families from across Mexico embraced Quetzalcoatl as their patron deity and dynastic founder, united by his cult. Inspired by Quetzalcoatlâs association with commerce, this diverse, multilingual population cultivated vast trade networks that facilitated the exchange of materials and ideas across great distances, resulting in cultural developments, such as an international art style and a pictographic writing system that brought together disparate communities of Mesoamerica.
The World of Tula and Chichen Itza: Tula, also known as Tollan, or Place of Reeds, was considered an ancestral place of origin for many of the civilizations of Mexico and the capital city of the Toltec people. The Toltec were revered for their sophisticated culture and artistryâattributes associated with the cityâs legendary founder and ruler, Quetzalcoatl, or the Plumed Serpent. Tula became the seat of the cult of Quetzalcoatl, attracting pilgrims from across Mesoamerica and emerging as a dynamic international center between AD 900 and 1200.Like Tula, the Maya city of Chichen Itza on the Yucatan Peninsula claimed an important relationship to the Plumed Serpent (who was called Kukulcan in Maya), and its art and architecture include numerous depictions of him. For over two centuries, merchants and traders from across the Americas flocked to Tula and Chichen Itza; they brought precious materials, such as greenstone, gold, turquoise, seashell, and feathers, and imported goods, like ceramic vessels, to the city centers.
The New Tollan: After the fall of Tula in AD 1200, many Toltecs migrated south to Cholula, where they built a new Tollan. They dedicated the city to Quetzalcoatl, the Plumed Serpent, in whose honor they erected a temple. Cholula soon emerged as the primary center of religious authority and pilgrimage in Mesoamerica, and could be compared to Rome for Christians or Mecca for Muslims.As the most important pilgrimage destination in the region, Cholula became a crossroads. The constant flow of exotic materials fostered the development of one of the most significant marketplaces in the Americas, an achievement befitting the cityâs deity, Quetzalcoatl, who was also known as the patron of merchants. By the fourteenth century, a new style of art had emerged alongside a pictographic system of communication, connecting the geographically distant kingdoms of the Children of the Plumed Serpent. Known as the International Style, it was characterized by a vivid palette and bold symbols that reduced ideas and spoken words to icons. This shared visual vocabulary facilitated the exchange of information across ethnic and linguistic boundaries.
Feasting, Divination and Heroic History: The performance of religious stories was an integral part of royal feasts among the Children of the Plumed Serpent. Poets used illustrated manuscripts like storyboards to recite royal genealogies and heroic histories. Festivities even included a kind of literary symposium in which nobles donned costumes and enacted specific roles, dancing and singing their parts to musical accompaniment. Revelers believed that by drinking to excess with goblets of pulque (a beverage fermented from the agave plant) or eating chocolate along with hallucinogens, they could conjure the dead and commune with their ancestors to seek advice or ask for benedictions.Feasting helped to build alliances and facilitate economic exchange. The production of art was directly supervisedâif not actually carried outâby men and women of the royal class itself. Art objects were often exchanged between nobles at feasts and royal fairs. Luxury goods, such as works of precious stone and metal, the feathers of tropical birds, and exquisitely woven and embroidered textiles, served as currency in the buying and selling of prestige and political power.
Avenues of Trade: By the mid-thirteenth century, political power had become less centralized in the southern Mexican highlands. Scores of independent royal houses produced extraordinary, finely crafted jewelry, polychrome ceramics, textiles, and featherwork. These luxury goods were exchanged as gifts to strengthen strategic alliances. Royal courts engaged in fiercely competitive gift-giving in order to enhance their position in political networks. The greater oneâs ability to acquire exotic materials and craft them into exquisite artworks, the better one could negotiate favorable marriages, and thereby achieve a higher status among neighboring communities.Trade routes facilitated the spread of the International Style and continued to unite far-flung independent states. From the Yucatan Peninsula to the Pacific Coast and the American Southwest, communities exchanged precious materials such as turquoise and shell for other elite commodities like rare plumage and cacao.
The Aztec Conquest and the Spanish Incursion: By the fifteenth century, a new power had emerged in the Valley of Mexico: the Aztec Empire. Under the ruler Ahuitzotl, the Aztecs expanded south to dominate Cholula, the Valley of Oaxaca and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The conquest of these Mixtec and Zapotec kingdoms threatened regional alliances; however, the confederaciesâ military acumen and deft negotiating enabled them to retain their trading networks.Further Aztec conquest ended with the arrival of Hernán Cortés and the Spanish army in 1519. This date corresponds to the year 1 Reed in the Mexican calendar, the year associated with Quetzalcoatlâs mythic birth. Ahuitzotlâs successor, Motecuhzoma II, interpreted the news of the Spaniardsâ arrival as the return of Quetzalcoatl and sent gifts to Cortés.Local communities, resentful of Aztec imperialism, readily forged alliances with the Spaniards and soon brought down the Aztec Empire. The southern kingdoms reconstituted their confederacies and trading networks under the new regime and emerged as an integral part of the new economy. Native ruling lords, or caciques, allied themselves with Spanish clergy and acted as intermediaries between the indigenous past and colonial present. Today, descendants of the Children of the Plumed Serpent continue to thrive in southern Mexico.
Children of the Plumed Serpent exhibit at LACMA (May 19, 2012)
©2012 Rebecca Dru Photography All Rights Reserved www.rebeccadru.com
www.facebook.com/rebeccadruphotography www.twitter.com/rebeccadru