Quetzalcoatl (FCbk1fxivv)

Quetzalcoatl (FCbk1fxivv)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This colorful painting of the divine force called Quetzalcoatl (Quetzal-Feathered Serpent) shows a male anthropomorphic figure standing in a 3/4 view, facing right. His skin tone is gray. He wears a red cap with a white fringe around the forehead and three quetzal feathers coming out of the top of the cap, meeting the cap at the site of what may be a white down feather. He wears an ear ornament that has a gray outer circle and a white center, with a curving yellow (feather?) decoration hanging down from the ear ornament. He wears a red, yellow, and green feather device on his back. He apparently has a shell necklace on his upper chest, a red waist sash, white bands with red trim and ties around his lower legs, and red and white sandal-shoes. In front of his stomach is a circular shield with white trim, a red center, a white cross-section of a shell (perhaps a tecciztli), and green fringe (perhaps more quetzal feathers). In his left hand, he is raising up what looks like an atlatl with a white handle. The upper hook is black with white polka dots and an additional six white circles outside along the outer perimeter.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

We include this figure of Quetzalcoatl for the iconography that it contains, which might be helpful for comparing with glyphs or glyphic elements. See other examples of Quetzalcoatl, below.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

Quetzalcoatl.

Gloss Normalization: 

Quetzalcoatl

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Date of Manuscript: 

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
Syntax: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Keywords: 

deities, nombres de deidades, divinities, divinidades, divine forces, fuerzas divinas, plumas, feathers, shells, conchas, caracoles

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

Quetzalcoatl, personal and deity name, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/Quetzalcoatl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Quetzalcoatl (nombre de una fuerza divina)

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 1: The Gods", fol. xivv, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/1/folio/xivv/images/b62fa415-2... Accessed 19 June 2025.

Image Source, Rights: 

Images of the digitized Florentine Codex are made available under the following Creative Commons license: CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International). For print-publication quality photos, please contact the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana ([email protected]). The Library of Congress has also published this manuscript, using the images of the World Digital Library copy. “The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse.”

Historical Contextualizing Image: