An Aztec pictorial manuscript painted on a single continuous sheet of amatl bark paper some 14.2 metres long, made in the Valley of Mexico around the time of the Spanish conquest, probably close to the year 1507. It opens with a tonalamatl, a divinatory calendar of twenty trecena periods of thirteen days each, every page centred on the deity who rules that period, and continues with a section on the eighteen veintena festivals of the solar year and a panel marking the 52 year calendar cycle. On its 52 year cycle panel, the deities Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca are shown dancing together, Quetzalcoatl identified by his cut shell breastplate, conical headgear and hook shaped earrings, shown here in his wind god aspect Ehecatl with a beak like mouth mask. Its veintena section gives unusual prominence to the rain god Tlaloc in its image of the Huey Tozoztli spring festival, a departure from the more common veneration of the maize goddess at that festival. The manuscript is held by the Bibliotheque de l'Assemblee Nationale in Paris and, as a French national treasure, has not been permitted to leave the country since the 1960s.
Facts
Subject Matter
Depicted SubjectSourced to the subject's own accountThe twenty trecena deities of the Aztec divinatory calendar, the eighteen veintena festivals, and the 52 year calendar cycle, including Quetzalcoatl dancing with Tezcatlipoca and Tlaloc presiding over the Huey Tozoztli festival. 1 Origins
CreationSourced to the subject's own account CountrySourced to the subject's own accountMexico (made in the Valley of Mexico; now in France) 1 Physical Form
MediumSourced to the subject's own accountPainted amatl bark paper, accordion folded 1 DimensionsSourced to the subject's own accountA single sheet approximately 14.2 metres long 1 Custody
Current LocationSourced to the subject's own accountBibliotheque de l'Assemblee Nationale, Paris 1 Current CustodianSourced to the subject's own accountAssemblee Nationale, French Republic 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Tezcatlipoca directly: "On its 52 year cycle panel, the deities Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca are shown dancing together, Quetzalcoatl identified by his cut shell breastplate, conical headgear and hook shaped earrings..."
This source names Valley of Mexico directly: "some 14.2 metres long, made in the Valley of Mexico around the time of the Spanish conquest, probably close to the year 1507."
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