Aztec Serpent Head, Palacio de los Condes de Santiago de Calimaya, Mexico City

1500-1600

Name(s) currently unknown

Mexico City, MEX

This monolithic serpent head was probably found in this site in the 1530s, when a Spaniard was granted this lot in Mexico City. The sculpture represents a feathered serpent: plumes can be seen both above and below the figure’s mouth, itself filled with fanged teeth. Like many large Aztec sculptures, this one would have been carved from a single block of stone.

It is not known if the sculpture served as part of the foundation of the 16th-century house that first stood on this corner. The mansion that rises above the serpent head in this photo dates to the late 18th century. It is set on the avenue leads directly to Mexico City’s zócalo, where the great Aztec Templo Mayor once stood.

For the Aztec, a feathered serpent like this one would have been associated with the deity Quetzalcoatl, or “Plumed Serpent.” Visible here are the curving teeth of the serpent’s open mouth. The eyes of the serpent would have been set farther back, now under the building’s foundation.

This sculpture had a varied history: it was originally part of an Aztec building, then incorporated into a 16th-century Spanish-style house built on the site, and then reused again in this house from the 18th century.

This open reuse of Aztec sculpture was rare in Mexico City. Recycled stone was typically recut and its original iconography effaced. In this case, it is possible the house’s 18th-century owner wanted to acknowledge the powerful artistry of the sculpture and included it in the design of his house.

Barbara E. Mundy

Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy.
Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820. http://www.fordham.edu/vistas, 2015.

González-Polo, Ignacio. 1983. El Palacio de los Condes de Santiago de Calimaya (Museo de la Ciudad de México). Mexico City: Departmento del Distrito Federal.

Keen, Benjamin. 1971. The Aztec Image in Western Thought. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.