Annual Faculty Lecture, Department of Art History
Title: Sacred
Matter, Art, and Imperial Identity in Aztec Tenochtitlan
In the pre-Columbian era of Mexico, devotional objects
served to reinforce existing cultural systems while simultaneously shaping the
overarching aesthetic narrative. This
presentation will explore how deity effigies and ritual performers in Aztec
Tenochtitlan helped to shape a sense of cultural identity and memorialized the
myths of the empire. Together we will
explore how the visual systems employed by the city-states of central Mexico
used sacred images as an active part of an imperial program designed to pull
the periphery to the capital and position the Aztecs as the divinely sanctioned
conquers of Mesoamerica.