[Aztlan] Metztitlan Mural

[Elaine Day Schele]

Yes Sam, it might be a stretch to propose that this writing could be 
compared to reversed Maya glyphs, but isn't it interesting that the 
cartouches seen on the left side of your image at 
http://lanfiles.williams.edu/~sedgerto/METZTITLAN1.jpg
are enclosed in looped ropes that look like those on Copan Stela F, east 
side.  See Schele Number 1008 at http://research.famsi.org/schele.html.

Elaine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sam Edgerton" <Samuel.Y.Edgerton at williams.edu>
To: <@williams.edu>
Sent: Monday, September 03, 2007 12:15 PM
Subject: [AZTLAN]more on reverse scripts


> Listeros:  Here's an interesting addenda to our "reverse glyphs" thread. 
> On the porteria wall of the Augustinian convento in Metztitlan, Hidalgo, 
> there's a mural painted, ca. 1570, now unfortunately much abraded but 
> originally depicting a giant Christ figure crucified above a baptismal 
> font into which his blood and water drip (URL 1 below). Surrounding the 
> font against a cityscape backdrop are a number of small figures including 
> Indians and friars (URL 2). The painting, by the way, was certainly done 
> by an Indian trained in the current European Renaissance chiaroscuro 
> style. At the lower far right a group of friars are shown before whom a 
> speech scroll unfolds. bearing a string of Latin letters upside down. They 
> spell in reverse order the words "MISERENE NOS TRIDOMINE" (URL 3) which 
> translated means "Have pity on us Oh Trinitarian Lord."   This inscription 
> is obviously a prayer offered to Jesus on the Cross and was therefore 
> intended to be "read" by him from his higher position in the picture. I 
> doubt that there is any direct connection between this curious incidence 
> and the "reverse glyphs" we've been observing on ancient Maya monuments, 
> but it does indicate a parallel thought process regarding how sacred 
> inscriptions should function in such holy contexts, in painted pictures at 
> least if not carved in sculpture or on buildings, shared by Christianized 
> Indians as well as medieval Europeans in that most spiritually minded age.
> Sam Edgerton
>
> http://lanfiles.williams.edu/~sedgerto/METZTITLAN1.jpg
> http://lanfiles.williams.edu/~sedgerto/METZTITLAN2.jpg
> http://lanfiles.williams.edu/~sedgerto/METZTITLAN3.jpg
>
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