Mexican Penitence and Human Sacrifice – 1734 Engraving of Aztec Religious Rites

Name: Mexican Penitence and Human Sacrifice – 1734 Engraving of Aztec Religious Rites
Brand: American Maps and Prints
SKU: BG-13806-55
Price: 270 USD
Availability: InStock

$270

€240 · dollar price at today's exchange rate

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Shipping to the United States: $51 standard, $73 express, insured and tracked.

Date: 1734
Kind: Native Peoples
Size: 42 × 26 cm (16.5 × 10.2 in)
Condition: Good. Condition is good. The engraving retains crisp lines and deep impressions. There is light foxing and minor soiling in the lower right corner, along with small paper losses at the edges, but the image area is unaffected.
Period: Colonial America
Places: Mexico
Reference: BG-13806-55

What the condition grades mean

Excellent: Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good: Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good: Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair: Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.

Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.

Guaranteed original. This is an original of the period stated, not a later reproduction or print-on-demand copy. If it is ever shown to be otherwise, we refund you in full.

Shipping to the United States. Sent from our gallery in Langweer, the Netherlands, flat between boards or rolled in a tube, and fully insured. Delivery and import charges.

About this piece

Mexican penances and the sacrifice of captives, a copperplate engraving of 1734 from Les Cérémonies et Coutumes Religieuses de tous les Peuples du Monde, engraved after designs by Bernard Picart (Tome VI, plate numbered 89 at the top). Two scenes appear on one sheet.

The upper scene, "Pénitences Mexicaines", is set in a vaulted chamber with a checkered floor, where an enthroned idol sits in front of walls covered with skulls. Penitents at the left and right hold stones and whips, and a group of attendants and musicians sit on the dais. The lower scene, "Sacrifice des Captifs", shows a stepped pyramid with priests performing the rite at the top beside two small shrines, while captives and armed figures stand at its foot among racks of skulls.

The scenes are European reconstructions, theatrical in their architecture, built from the written accounts of the conquest rather than from direct observation.

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