Moctezuma's feather crown
The term Moctezumas feather crown (Spanish: Penacho de Moctezuma ) denotes a precious feather headdress ( Nahuatl : quetzalāpanecayōtl ), which is in the Weltmuseum Wien (inventory number VO 10402 ). It is probably a priest's headdress. A connection with the penultimate Aztec ruler Moctezuma Xocoyotzin is highly speculative.
description
The headdress is displayed today in the form of a European fan, with the middle part protruding slightly beyond the segment of the circle. The dimensions are 116 cm in height and depending on the extent to 175 cm in width. Its surface is covered with feathers from various species of birds in concentric semicircles. The smallest semicircle consists of blue feathers of the bird called xiuhtōtōtl in Nahuatl ( Cotinga amabilis ) and is bordered by small gold plates in the shape of scales. Outwardly, there is a narrow border of pink feathers of the flamingo ( tlāuhquechōlli ), then small green quetzal feathers . The next ring consists of red-brown feathers with white tips of a cuckoo bird , piaya cayana , the ring is bordered with three rows of small gold plates. The outermost row of feathers are the quetzal bird's tail feathers, which are up to 55 cm high and very close together. The higher central part has the same structure, only slightly shifted upwards. Longer springs have also been used here. The springs are attached to a network of fine fiber cords, which have been stabilized by stiffening rods. Another net with leather straps was used to slip over the wearer's head. In 1878 the headdress, which has shown severe pest infestation, was restored, assuming that it was a coat. Missing gold plates were replaced by gold-plated bronze, and springs of the same type were used, if possible.
function
From the beginning there was disagreement about the use of feather headdresses. In the inventory there is talk of headgear, although it is uncertain where this knowledge may have come from. Then a coat or reverse currency (badge worn on the back) was accepted. It was not until 1892 that the American anthropologist Zelia Nuttall proved that it was a headdress, which was generally accepted after some time and is still considered a recognized research opinion today. The Viennese feather headdress is clearly not the badge of lower to highest rulers, the xiuhhuitzolli , a triangular head band that tapers towards the top and was set with precious stones, especially turquoise ( xihuitl ). This badge was so typical that rulers are always marked with it in handwritten illustrations. The headdress made of ostrich feathers ( copilli ) used by modern conchero dancers is a modern development.
history
The oldest clear description of the feather headdress can be found in an inventory that was created for the curiosity collection of Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol, which was then in Ambras Castle, after his death in 1596 ( Inuentari Weilennd der Fr: dt: Ertzhertzog Ferdinanden zu Austria ec. Lobseligister gedechtnus varnuts and movables ). There the headdress is described as follows: Mer ain Mörischer Huet of long, beautiful glistening Greek and gold feathers, on top with white, red and blue feathers, with gold roses and flatterers, has a front on the forehead, a completely golden beak . In contrast, the headdress described in the list from 1519 is likely to be a different item that has not survived due to numerous deviations. This list includes around 160 objects that Hernán Cortés sent to the Spanish kings in 1519 through his envoys Alsonso Fernández Puertocarrero and Francisco de Montejo . It can be assumed that it includes, among other things, Moctezuma's favors to Cortés. It is this collection that was admired by numerous contemporaries in various places such as Veracruz , Seville , Valladolid and Brussels , including Albrecht Dürer in the autumn of 1520 . An essential part of the gifts were the costumes worn by priests as representatives of important deities, including Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca . It is assumed that the feather headdress comes from the collection of Count Ulrich (VI.) Von Montfort in Tettnang (Upper Swabia) and was later purchased by Archduke Ferdinand. Nothing is known about the origin of this object, which can only be proven from 1575. The mentioned golden beak was mentioned for the last time in an inventory from 1730, it must have been lost in the following decades. Most of the pieces from the Ambras collection came to Vienna at the beginning of the 19th century, where they are now kept in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Only the pre-Columbian and some colonial objects are in the Weltmuseum Wien.
controversy
The feather headdress is the only surviving object of its kind ( there is a copy made in the 1950s in the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City). It is Mexican policy to return such outstanding cultural treasures as far as possible to their country of origin. This is the goal of the Mexican conchero dancer and activist Xokonoschtletl Gomora , who founded and heads the Yankuikanahuak association for this purpose in 1993 . Since then, he has been running an international campaign that is not aimed at restituting a cultural asset, but rather regards the headdress as a national symbol of identification.
Closely linked to these claims is the connection between the feather headdress and the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II, for which there is no evidence. Nevertheless, this connection has traditionally grown in the minds of Mexicans (see the symbol of the Moctezuma metro station).
Scientific studies by specialists from both countries have shown that the feather crown would not survive a transport unscathed, which is why a return to Mexico is very unlikely.
Individual evidence
- ^ Zelia Nuttall: Sur le quetzal-apanecaiotl ou coiffure Mexicaine en plumes conservée à Vienne . In: Congrès International des Américanistes, Paris 1890 . Paris 1892, pp. 453-459.
- ↑ http://www.xoko.org/
- ↑ El frágil penacho de Moctezuma in: El País of July 2, 2014 (Spanish).
literature
- Karl Anton Nowotny: Mexican treasures from art chambers of the Renaissance in the Museum für Völkerkunde Vienna and in the National Library Vienna . Museum of Ethnology, Vienna 1960.
- Ferdinand Anders: The Treasures of Montezuma. Utopia and reality . 2nd expanded edition. Museum für Völkerkunde, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-85497-027-7 .
- Gottfried Fliedl: "... The victim of a few feathers". The so-called feather crown of Montezuma as an object of national and museum desires . Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-85132-313-0 .
- Susanne Karoline Schlager: "El Penacho de Moctezuma" - Foreign springs or Austrian cultural heritage? Master thesis. Vienna 2010.
- Sabine Haag, Alfonso de Maria y Campos, Lilia Rivero Weber, Christian Feest (eds.): The old Mexican feather headdress . ZKF Publisher, Altenstadt 2012, ISBN 978-3-9811620-5-9