2-704-419 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'Idoles de Tabasco', 1723. Idols of Tabasco. Gruesome scene of human sacrifice that supposedly took place in southern Mexico. From "Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde", (Religious Ceremonies and Customs of All the Peoples of the World), by Jean-Frédéric Bernard, illustrated by Bernard Picart. Although Picart never left Europe, he relied on accounts by those who had. The book 'marked a major turning point in European attitudes toward religious belief and hence the sacred'. [Amsterdam, 1723-1737]