Antique Sacred Prints
Quetzalcoatl Worship and Hunting Deity, Rare 1734 Engraving of Aztec Rituals
42 cm · 16.5 in
26 cm · 10.2 in

Close-ups

Quetzalcoatl Worship and Hunting Deity, Rare 1734 Engraving of Aztec Rituals, close-up 1Quetzalcoatl Worship and Hunting Deity, Rare 1734 Engraving of Aztec Rituals, close-up 2Quetzalcoatl Worship and Hunting Deity, Rare 1734 Engraving of Aztec Rituals, close-up 3Quetzalcoatl Worship and Hunting Deity, Rare 1734 Engraving of Aztec Rituals, close-up 4Quetzalcoatl Worship and Hunting Deity, Rare 1734 Engraving of Aztec Rituals, close-up 5Quetzalcoatl Worship and Hunting Deity, Rare 1734 Engraving of Aztec Rituals, close-up 6

Framed and on the wall

Quetzalcoatl Worship and Hunting Deity, Rare 1734 Engraving of Aztec Rituals, shown framedQuetzalcoatl Worship and Hunting Deity, Rare 1734 Engraving of Aztec Rituals, shown framed on a wall, true to sizeQuetzalcoatl Worship and Hunting Deity, Rare 1734 Engraving of Aztec Rituals, shown framed in a room, true to size

Frame and rooms are illustrations of how the print could look, drawn to its real size; it is sold unframed unless the description says otherwise.

Rites of the World

Quetzalcoatl Worship and Hunting Deity, Rare 1734 Engraving of Aztec Rituals

Anno Domini MDCCXXXIV1734

$295

€260 · £220

Original print, not a reproduction

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Date
1734
Sheet size
16.5 × 10.2 in (42 × 26 cm)
Condition
Good. Condition is good. The engraving has strong impressions and crisp detailing throughout. There is some minor toning along the edges, light foxing near the lower margin, and a faint crease in the top right corner. The paper is otherwise stable, clean.
Faith
Indigenous Americas
Collection
Rites of the World
Era
1700 to 1799, Mortier, Picart and the illustrated Bible
Stock no.
f_45019962

Quetzalcoatl and the hunting deity, a copperplate engraving of 1734 from Les Cérémonies et Coutumes Religieuses de tous les Peuples du Monde, engraved after designs by Bernard Picart (Tome IX, plate numbered 90 at the top). Two scenes appear on one sheet.

The upper scene is lettered "Le Mercure des Mexicains adoré à Cholula sous le nom de Quetzalcouatl". A seated figure on a stepped pedestal receives the offerings of a crowd on a checkered terrace: kneeling attendants, men in feathered headdresses, a woman with a child in the foreground, a brazier, and a man bringing a caged bird. Mountains and a distant town appear beyond the balustrade. The lower scene, "Divinité qui préside à la chasse", is a crowded hunt in a wooded landscape, with figures drawing bows and clubbing animals around a large central beast.

The engraver follows a European habit of matching foreign gods to classical ones, and so the feathered serpent deity is lettered as the Mercury of the Mexicans.