Aztec art

Art of the Aztecs, an American Indian people who moved south into the valley of Mexico in the AD 1100s, building their capital Tenochtitlán (now Mexico City) from 1325. In the 15th century they created a short-lived empire that was destroyed soon after the Spanish invasion of 1519. The Aztec way of life was dominated by a harsh religion that included ceremonial human sacrifice, and much of their surviving art refers to their belief system. Aztec architecture was particularly impressive, featuring enormous temples set upon high pyramids. They also produced jewellery in gold, jade, and turquoise, as well ceramics and textiles displaying the Aztecs' characteristic angular, linear, and geometric patterns. However, they were most accomplished in their sculpture, producing expressive and sometimes disturbing works that were often as brutal as their religion; one notable example is a sculpture of the Aztec birth-goddess whose face is contorted in agony as she gives birth to a child.

The Aztecs used difficult materials with surprising artfulness and detail in their sculpture. Stone and wood were fashioned with stone tools that were often made from obsidian, a volcanic glass. Metalworking was confined to copper and gold, which were either shaped by hammering when cold, or melted and cast in clay moulds.

The Aztecs used a complex calendar that combined a sacred period of 260 days with the solar year of 365 days. When the two calendars coincided, which happened every 52 years, great rites to pacify the gods were performed, including mass human sacrifice and the rebuilding of temples. The Aztecs had numerous gods, but their most important were Huitzilopochtli (‘hummingbird wizard’) and the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl. Aztec writing combined hieroglyphs and pictographs. Despite the destruction of Aztec society and culture, some forms of the original Aztec language Nahuatl are still spoken by some Mexicans.