xicalcoliuhqui (Mdz20v)

xicalcoliuhqui (Mdz20v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This example of iconography features the stepped fret swirling design (xicalcoliuhqui) that was well known on some war shields. It features a rectangular swirl in two tones of green and a contrasting yellow. The fringe of feathers at the bottom of the shield is yellow, pink, red, and yellow and green at the bottom.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Sometimes swirling water involves a rectangular coil. It is unclear if the coil here has any association with whirlpools. The potential significance of the swirling water is brought home by the name glyph for Tetzauh (omen), which seems to suggest that whirlpools (and perhaps whirlwinds, and the like) create a vortex that connects life on earth with a spiritual realm. See below.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

una rodela desta
diuisa de
plumas
rricas

Gloss Normalization:

una rodela de esta divisa de plumas ricas

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Art, Design, Crafts, etc.

Feathers

Weapons, Shields, Armor

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

rectangular

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

stepped

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

xicalcoliuhqui, a stepped fret design, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xicalcoliuhqui
coltic, curved, bent, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/coltic

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 20 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 51 of 188.

Image Source, Rights:

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).

Historical Contextualizing Image: