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Rites of the World
Celebration and Ritual: Engraving of Mexican Festivities in the Age of Discovery
$610
€540 · £460
Original print, not a reproduction
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- Date
- Not stated
- Sheet size
- 9.3 × 15.2 in (23.5 × 38.5 cm)
- Condition
- Good. Good condition. Minor visible signs of aging such as edge wear, paper browning, and foxing spots (outside the image) are apparent. Most wear is around the edges. Please study the image carefully.
- Faith
- Indigenous Americas
- Collection
- Rites of the World
- Stock no.
- f_37781312
"The Rejoicings of the Mexicans, at the beginning of the Age", an original copper engraving published in London by Alex. Hogg at the King's Arms, No. 16 Paternoster Row, as the imprint at the top of the plate reads. It comes from Portlock's New Collection of Voyages and Travels, issued in 1794.
A ring of dancers moves in the center of the scene, most of them in feathered headdresses, with some in skirts of feathers. At the left a kneeling musician beats a large drum and another man plays a long horn, while on the right a group stands before a pyramid-like temple topped with a dome and a ball, its face carrying a large sun disc. More dancers appear in the middle distance beyond a palm tree, and a broad tree spreads over the scene at the left, with hills and sea in the distance.
The print is a European reconstruction of an imagined scene, built from the accounts of travelers and not from observation, and it shows how Mexico was pictured for English readers of the 1790s.
