[Aztlan] Az: Bows and Arrows

[Susan Gilchrist]

To expand on this a little bit, "foliated decor" has a long history in
Europe, with Egyptan, classical Jewish/Christian, etc. origins, but it was
also
more or less a fad in the 16th century. I'm thinking of Matt Kavaler's
architectural photos in recent articles in the Art Bulletin showing stone
architecture with branches and leaves, and also prints from Antwerp
from the second half of the 1500s, plus book title pages. In the
pictures for Diego Duran's History of the Indies of New Spain, it seems
as though sometimes the foliated decor starts getting too fancy,
and maybe artists were advised to just draw pictures without so much
decoration. Diego Valades also seems to like to add foliage to things,
along with the decor called "strapwork" which is a little pejorative in
European art,
maybe to the same degree as "tequiqui"? It seems as though the
style traveled back and forth across the Atlantic easily, almost like
art nouveau. Or more recently, teenage graffiti artists' fabulous,
almost totally illegible writing. --susan gilchrist

On 4/16/07, Sam Edgerton <Samuel.Y.Edgerton at williams.edu> wrote:
>
> Hi Greg: The foliated swag motif that extends through and connects all the
> Ixmiquilpan paintings is sometimes referred to as the style of
> "tequitqui",
> a  Nauatl word that means "laborer". The term is pejorative but has
> unfortunately been applied rather generally to this type of mural
> decoration commonly seen in nearly all the sixteenth-century conventos in
> Mexico. It clearly derived from European classical and Renaissance sources
> (actually printed bookplates) but was taught to native artisans by the
> friars who desired to be surrounded by familiar pictorial idioms.
> Nevertheless, indigenous artists became quite expert at mastering it and
> even introduced traditional flora and other native elements. In my
> THEATERS
> book, Chapter Six, I have extensively described and analyzed
> iconographically the Ixmiquilpan foliated decor in this respect.
> Sam Edgerton
>
>
>
> At 02:08 PM 4/16/2007 -0500, you wrote:
>
> >The foliate decoration on that mural really looks European.  Were the
> >artists working with a european artist?
> >Regards,
> >
> >Greg
> >
> >(614) 517-7204
> >greg at gregsandor.com
> >http://www.gregsandor.com
> >----- Original Message ----- From: "Sam Edgerton"
> ><Samuel.Y.Edgerton at williams.edu>
> >To: <aztlan at lists.famsi.org>
> >Sent: Monday, April 16, 2007 9:45 AM
> >Subject: [Aztlan] Az: Bows and Arrows
> >
> >
> >>Hi again Listeros: Here's a URL of one of Jorge's Ixmiquilpan-mural
> photos
> >>showing a struggle between a "Chichimec" holding a bow and arrows, and
> an
> >>Otomi warrior emerging from a flower dressed in a jaguar skin, and armed
> >>with a maccuahuitl.
> >>Sam Edgerton
> >>
> >>http://lanfiles.williams.edu/~sedgerto/IXMIQ.jpg
> >>
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