The Landesmuseum of Württemberg holds a pair of Aztec feathered shields. The shields were made before the Spaniards conquered Tenochtitlan. Hernán Cortés shipped these shields back to Spain in 1519 along with other precious objects made of jade and silver as tribute to King Charles I of Spain. Understood as ‘political gifts’ these artefacts helped justify claims of dominion. War artefacts were particularly esteemed as signs of submission. Charles I of Spain soon became Charles V when he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Brussels in 1520. Charles displayed the precious objects sent by Cortés at his coronation.
Aztec Shield For Charles V
Feathered shield, Aztec, c. 1519 (Inv. [E 1402] Friedrich I of Württemberg (1557–1608); courtesy of Landesmuseum Württemberg, Germany).
Linda Baez
Further reading
- Bujok, E. (2004) Neue Welten in europäischen Sammlungen: Africana und Americana in Kunstkammern bis 1670 (Berlin: Reimer).
- Fane, D., A. Russo, and G. Wolf (eds.) (2015) Images Take flight: Feather Art in Mexico and Europe 1400–1700 (Munich: Hirmer).
- Feest, C. (1990) ‘Vienna’s Mexican treasures: Aztec, Mixtec and Tarascan works from 16th-century American collections’, Archiv für Völkerkunde, vol. 45, 1–64.
- Frischlin, M.J. (1602) Beschreibung deß Fürstlichen Apparatus, Königlichen Auffzugs/Heroischen Ingressus und herrlicher Pomp und Solennitet (Frankfurt am Main).
- Landesmuseum Wurttemberg (2017) Die Kunstkammer der Herzöge von Württemberg: Bestand, Geschichte, Kontext, 3 vols. (Ostfildern: Jan Thorbecke Verlag).
- Mulryne, J.R., H. Watanabe-O’Kelly, and M. Shewring (eds.) (2004) Europa Triumphans: Court and Civic Festivals in Early Modern Europe (Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate).
- Nutall, Z. (1892) On Ancient Mexican Shields: an Essay (Leiden: P.W.M. Trap).
- de Sahagún, B. (1961) Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain [1577] (Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research and the University of Utah).
