zoquitl (FCbk11f231v)

This iconographic example, featuring a black-line sketch in a black rectangle of a man standing in mud (zoquitl), 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 not only a Nahua man with his feet buried in swirling mud, but the landscape scene also includes two hieroglyphs, a stone (tetl) on the left and water (atl) on the right. The text explains that clay “is water and earth mixed together” (in Anderson and Dibble’s translation of the Nahuatl). The contextualizing image also shows a man working clay with his hands. Both men wear a cloak tied over a shoulder and pulled back so that they can work. They also wear loincloths. The shading on the bodies and on the cloth show European artistic influences. These drawings also include dark sky bands at the top of the rectangles–mostly made of hatch marks, but with some other indeterminate shapes.