mazatl (FCbk11f122v)

This iconographic example, featuring a deer (mazatl), 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 the head of the deer in profile, facing left. It is gray and white with a large antler. This deer is juxtaposed near a mazaxocotl tree. Thus, it is quite like a compound Nahuatl hieroglyph, except for the considerable difference between the two elements (tree and deer). Still, the deer is there to give the phonetic start (maza-) to the name of the tree. Nothing in the description of the tree says “deer,” so it does not necessarily play a semantic role. The setting of the two elements in a landscape and the shading that provides three-dimensionality show European artistic influence in the style of this tlacuilo.