quetzalitztli (FCbk11f204v)

This iconographic example, with some hieroglyphic elements, features an emerald or a green obsidian blade (quetzalitztli). It 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 black-line drawing of a somewhat plain stone with rounded edges. This stone has short streams of water (of a hieroglyphic nature) and long pointed rays (akin to tonalli elements) shooting out from all around its edges. These add considerable movement–perhaps intending shimmer–to the stone. Water may also be present because its droplets can double for precious greenstones (chalchihuitl), and, incidentally, the quetzalchalchihuitl that appears on folio 205 recto has these same short streams of waters spurting out from the stone. On the left edge of the image here (better viewed in the contextualizing image) one can see part of a man’s head and his hand. The hand is holding what may be a tool. Perhaps he has struck the stone or is about to strike the stone in order to begin carving it into gems. The shape of the tool in his hand could be itztli itself, as it can take a rectangular shape (see below). The man is wearing a long-sleeved tunic and long trousers, all with a cloak on top, tied on one shoulder. The fabric is shaded, giving it a three-dimensionality, which reveals European artistic traditions that have influence this tlacuilo. While the clothing reveals European cultural influences, the cloak is Indigenous (called a tilmatli, or tilmahtli, with the glottal stop).