Cortés (LTlaxUT1a)

This iconographic example is included here for possible comparisons with Nahuatl hieroglyphs. It features don Hernando Cortés, the captain of the invasionary expedition against the Aztecs. The contextualizing image shows that he has dismounted his horse to greet Xicontencatl, a ruler of Tlaxcallan (modern day Tlaxcala). They would enter into an alliance against the Mexica. Cortés wears a belted dark gray tunic and tights of the same color. The tights have ties just below the knees. He also wears shoes of the type that are responsible for the footprints on the road where he stands (mixed in with horse hoof prints). Shading on the lower part of his tunic gives it three-dimensionality, a European artistic trait that had to have been learned by the tlacuilo at a later date. Cortes also has a sword that is visible just behind him. In his left hand he holds the hat with three tassels and some long cords that he had just removed from his head. (He wears it later, while sitting in a curule chair, on page 1b.) With his right hand Cortés grasps the wrist of Xicotencatl.