huaxin (FCbk11f123v)

This iconographic example, featuring a huaxin tree, is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the text near the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a frontal view of the tree with some lacy green leaves and clumps of red pods hanging down. Flies (zayolin) buzz around the pods and other insects appear at the top of the tree. The contextualizing image shows a woman sitting on her legs with a woven, lidded basket (petlacalli) in front of her with some pink objects on top, perhaps tamales. The text explains that the pods are bean-like, and the insides are edible, although they smell bad. The landscape and dark sky are suggestive of European artistic styling that this tlacuilo has embraced, but the tree and its pods are not far away from those seen in the Codex Mendoza from c. 1541. On the next page of the Florentine Codex, the same scene is repeated with modifications. For one thing, women are harvesting the pods and preparing to market them, which correspONDs with the text’s mention of the sale of pods in the tianquiztli. The other development is that the bugs at the top of the tree, which must have been caterpillars (ahuatl), have transformed into butterflies (papalotl). The tree stands in a landscape setting. This setting, along with the shading that provides a three-dimensionality to the scene, reveal European artistic influence.