Deputy Director, Program Director, and Dr. Virginia Fields Curator of the Art of the Ancient Americas, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The indigenous painted history of the Conquest in Book 12 of the Florentine Codex
Abstract:
The History of the Conquest of Mexico in Book 12 of the Florentine Codex is a rich and complex document. It is the single most complete history of the Conquest of Mexico from the standpoint of the Tlatelolca and the Mexica who defended Mexico-Tenochtltlan against the Spaniards. The alphabetic texts in Nahuatl and Spanish represent different moments and views of the event. The first transcriptions were recorded in alphabetic Nahuatl as early as 1555. These are deemed to be records of the voices of the warriors who fought the war—this first iteration represents the Conquest as experienced. The second iteration was made between 1575 and 1577 by the Nahua “grammarians” who are the co-authors with Bernardino de Sahagún of this native history—their views represent the Conquest as remembered/interpreted. The third iteration is the Spanish translation by Sahagún of the alphabetic Nahuatl version. His voice is an explanation/justification of this native history. There is however, a more complex text that adds a completely new depth to the indigenous views and understanding of the Conquest, the visual texts comprised by the 161 ink drawings. In this presentation I will analyze the first eight chapters of Book XII revealing the different layers of meaning that are created by the interaction between the alphabetic texts and the images. I contend that the reading of the images conveys a cosmological view of the events, an understanding that was likely completely lost to any European reader of the chronicle and that gave Nahua history of the Conquest a different status than just a chronicle of the events. The way the paintings relate an ulterior meaning of the events also helps us to understand the different symbolic and ontological status that the paintings had for the Nahua co-authors of the Florentine Codex and specially of Book 12.