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The Aztec Empire

A GUIDE TO THE EXHIBITION FOR TEACHERS

The Aztec Empire is organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in collaboration with the Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (CONACULTA) and the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) of Mexico.

Major sponsors of this exhibition are

Additional support provided by

This exhibition has also been made possible in part by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities, together with the generous support of the Leadership Committee for The Aztec Empire , GRUMA, ALFA, and Con Edison.

Transportation assistance provided by Media support provided by Thirteen/WNET Special thanks to the Embassy of Mexico in the U.S., the Embassy of the United States in Mexico, and the Consulate General of Mexico in New York.

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Olmec Maya Toltec-MayaZapotec TeotihuacánToltec Mixtec Aztec

Preclassic

Classic

Postclassic

Map

AZTEC EMPIRE

TENOCHTITLAN

(MEXICO CITY)

PACIFIC OCEAN

TARASCAN EMPIRE

This guide, which accompanies the Solomon R. Guggenheim exhibition The Aztec Empire , is designed to provide ideas, activities, and resources that explore issues raised by this exhibition. The exhibition and guide focus on the varied historical and cultural influences that have contributed to Aztec art and its development as culturally rich, visually engaging, and emotionally compelling.

For Aztecs, art was a material manifestation of their vision of the universe; its symbols were the reflection of their religious, economic, political and social concepts. The objects that they created were designed to be used and integrated into daily life. Although visitors can appreciate these works for their beauty, expressive qualities, and workmanship, they are fragments dislocated from their past.

The Aztec Empire at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, on view October 15, 2004 – February 13, 2005, represents the largest survey of Aztec art ever to have been staged outside Mexico. It brings together more than 430 works drawn from public and private collections, including archaeological finds of the last decade never before seen outside Mexico. Organized thematically, the exhibition explores all aspects of Aztec religious, social, and economic life through the sheer diversity and range of artifacts on display: from monumental stone sculpture to miniature gold objects, and from intricate turquoise mosaics to rare pictorial manuscripts (or codices).

This guide is not intended as a comprehensive overview of Aztec art or history; rather it focuses on an important work selected from each of the major themes in the exhibition, and provides suggestions for discussion questions and classroom activities (Further Explorations) intended to encourage students to speculate and develop hypotheses both about Aztec society and the objects they left behind. It is hoped that students will be able to relate much of the material to their own lives – citing both

Using this

similarities and differences. The back of the guide includes vocabulary and phonetic spellings for selected Aztec words, as well as a list of additional resources. The guide is available in printed form and on the museum’s Website at www.guggenheim.org.

The design and content of these materials have a three-fold purpose:

• To assist educators in developing classroom units focusing on The Aztec Empire , and aspects of Precolumbian North America
• To provide educators with the tools to conduct a self-guided museum visit
• To expand upon, themes and ideas imbedded in the exhibition

By examining these representative works, a cultural context emerges to highlight the modes of expression that are the hallmarks of Aztec culture. Although the guide is designed to support the exhibition and will be most useful in conjunction with a trip to the museum, it is also intended to serve as a resource long after the exhibition has closed. Before bringing a class to the museum, teachers are invited to visit the exhibition, read the guide, and decide which aspects are most relevant for their students.

The exhibition has been organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in collaboration with the Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (CONACULTA) and the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH). Guest curator is Felipe Solís, Director of the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City, co-curator of the large-scale survey Aztecs at the Royal Academy in London in 2003, and one of the world's foremost authorities on Aztec art and culture. Exhibition design is by Enrique Norten of TEN Arquitectos + J. Meejin Yoon.

selling a bewildering variety of food and luxuries.

Fearless warriors and pragmatic builders, the Aztecs created an empire during the 15th century that was surpassed in size in the Americas only by that of the Incas in Peru. As early texts and modern archaeology continue to reveal, beyond their conquests, there were many positive achievements:

• the formation of a highly specialized and stratified society and an imperial administration
• the expansion of a trading network as well as a tribute system
• the development and maintenance of a sophisticated agricultural economy, carefully adjusted to the ecology
• and the creation of an intellectual and religious outlook that held society to be an integral part of the cosmos.

The yearly round of rites and ceremonies in the cities of Tenochtitlan and neighboring Tetzcoco, and their symbolic art and architecture, gave expression

to an awareness of the interdependence of nature and humanity.

When the Spanish defeated the Aztecs they destroyed much of Tenochtitlan and rebuilt it as Mexico City, the capital of modern- day Mexico. The legacy of the Aztecs remains, however, in the form of archaeological ruins such as the Templo Mayor, the heart of Aztec religious activity and the symbolic center of the empire.

Today’s Mexicans are very proud of their Aztec past and continue to remember the traditions and practice the art forms of their ancestors. More than two million people still speak the indigenous language of the Aztecs, Nahuatl. However, perhaps the most poignant reminder of the Aztecs is the Mexican national flag, which features the legendary eagle, cactus, and snake emblem of the long-buried heart of the mighty Aztec empire, Tenochtitlan.

FRAGMENT OF AN

ANTHROPOMORPHIC BRAZIER

The Aztec were known not only for their sculpture, but also for their expressive and sensitive poetry. The sculpture and poem below provide a glimpse into ways that the cycles of life were portrayed. Look carefully at the sculpture. The three faces represent the cycle of life. In the middle we can see the face of a young man, with all his teeth and wearing an ornament between the nose and upper lip. On either side are two halves of the face of an old, toothless man; these two faces are framed by the symmetrically divided face of a corpse with its eyes closed. The thirteen decorative rings (four on the young man’s head, nine on the corpse’s) represent the parts of a calendar cycle.

Nezahualcoyotl, the poet-king of Texcoco writes:

I, Nezahualcoyotl, ask this: Is it true one really lives on the earth? Not forever on earth, only a little while here. Though it be jade it falls apart, though it be gold it wears away, Not forever on earth, only a little while here.

Michael D. Coe, Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs , (New York: Thames and Hudson, 2002), fifth edition, p. 223.

Discussion Questions

• After reading the poem, describe its meaning in your own words.
• What similarities can you find in the poem and the sculpture. What differences?

Further Explorations

• The artist who made the Mask with Three Faces chose to represent the life cycle in three stages. How would you choose to portray the cycle of life? What phases of life would you include? Why?

154 Eagle warrior Aztec, ca. 1440– Fired clay, stucco, and paint, 170 x 118 x 55 cm Museo del Templo Mayor, INAH, Mexico City 10- Photo: Michel Zabé, assistant Enrique Macías

This part of the exhibition is devoted to the wealth of extraordinary artifacts excavated from the most significant religious building in Tenochtitlan, the great Templo Mayor. When the Aztecs founded their capital, they built a temple. Between 1325 and 1521, each Aztec ruler added a new outermost layer to the temple out of respect to the gods and to ensure that his reign would be immortalized within the great stone structure. This imposing structure lay at the ritual heart of the city. It was here that public rituals, including human sacrifice, took place. Like most buildings of the time, the Templo Mayor was covered in stucco, a type of plaster, and painted. Large sculptures further decorated the building.

Recognizing its importance to the Aztec people, after the conquest the Spanish quickly dismantled the Templo Mayor, and reused some of the stone in their construction of a cathedral, which still occupies one side of Mexico City’s main square (or zócalo ) today. They also

recorded their awe upon seeing this amazing building.

In 1978 workers carrying out routine maintenance work on electric-lighting equipment uncovered a large circular sculpture that was identified by archaeologists as a representation of the dismembered body of Coyolxauhqui, goddess of the moon. This find led to the eventual unearthing of the Templo Mayor’s long-buried foundations. During the excavation, it was discovered that the preceding versions of the pyramid complex had been preserved intact with each subsequent ruler’s rebuilding, and so archaeologists were able to identify seven different layers, peeling each away like an onion skin. Over 100 sacrificial deposits or offerings containing more than 6,000 objects have been discovered built into the structure.

Templo Mayor and its

Symbolism

The excavations of the Templo Mayor also yielded objects from older Mesoamerican cultures that the Aztecs had held in high regard. The exhaustive range of offerings suggests that the Aztecs created the Templo Mayor as a model of everything that could be found in the universe, both past and present. The organization of the four-sided temple structure is also thought to reflect the Aztec worldview, in which the earth is understood to be a disk, surrounded by water and divided into four quarters.

EAGLE WARRIOR

The most prestigious military societies or orders were those of the eagle and the jaguar. These warriors wore either eagle or jaguar costumes. This life-size sculpture represents an eagle warrior. It is one of a pair that was found flanking a doorway to the chamber where the eagle warriors met, next to the Temple Mayor. The eagle was the symbol of the sun, to whom all sacrifices were offered. This is one of the finest examples of large, hollow ceramic sculptures ever found in the Valley of Mexico.

86 Mask Teotihuacan, ca. 450, Stone, turquoise, obsidian, and shell, 21.5 x 20 cm Museo Nacional de Antropología, INAH, Mexico City. Photo: Michel Zabé

The Aztecs were not the first people to settle in Mexico. For 2,500 years before their arrival, the area had been home to many civilizations, including the Olmecs, Toltecs, and the people of Teotihuacan. The Aztecs were the last of these great cultures to settle there, and, as a result, were heavily influenced by the already established groups. In order to integrate themselves into the area, they adopted the native language, Nahuatl, and copied artistic styles and techniques from other Mesoamerican cultures. (Mesoamerica is the term used to describe the central region of the Americas inhabited by native civilizations before the arrival of the Spanish.) The warlike Aztecs also formed alliances with nearby communities to consolidate their military strength and expand their empire.

Perhaps the two greatest influences on Aztec art and culture came from the ancient cities of Teotihuacan and Tula. Before its decline in A.D. 700, Teotihuacan had been a wondrous city of about

200,000 people, with extensive temple complexes and specialized craft districts. Historically, it was a site of vital importance to the Aztecs, who revered it as the City of the Gods (“Teotihuacan”). They also incorporated a number of Teotihuacano gods into their pantheon (family of gods), including Tlaloc, the rain god, and Chalchiuhtlicue (“she of the jade skirt”), the goddess of lakes and streams. A principal deity, the ruler-priest known as Quetzalcoatl (“feathered serpent”), was adopted from the Toltecs.

Tula (“place of reeds”) and home to the Toltecs, thrived a few hundred years after Teotihuacan, and left a similarly influential legacy to later Mesoamerican cultures. The Aztecs believed the Toltecs were the founders of civilization and credited them with the invention of painting and sculpture. Aztec craftsmen held a privileged position in society, working for the nobility. Although they were extremely important, artists never signed their work, which was considered collective.

Legendary Cultures –

Aztec Ancestors