3-098-989 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Reception of Moctezuma, (19 and 20), 1698. The Emperor Moctezuma and entourage, on his way to receive Hernán Cortés at the entrance to Mexico-Tenochtitlán (the Aztec capital) in 1519. (19: 'Reciviento de Motecuhcuma; 20: Dansas de los Mexicanos En Canoas Por la Laguna', (Reception of Motecuhzoma: Dances by the Mexica in Canoes on the Lagoon). Special emphasis is placed on the rich representation of the emperor's retinue. The parts of the representation worked with mother-of-pearl are always the garments or individual details of the composition, but never the faces or hands of the figures, which are painted in oil. Panel from a series of twenty-four mother-of-pearl inlaid paintings depicting historical moments in Hernán Cortés's conquest of Mexico, commissioned by Charles II and based on various Spanish chronicles, the first of which was published in 1552. All the scenes depicted are identified and numbered by cartouches in the upper centre of each panel, facilitating their connection to the events described in the chronicles and also the order in which the panels are displayed.