Pictorial Theories by Missionaries in Sixteenth-century New Spain: the Capacities of Hieroglyphs as Media in Transcultural Negotiation

Abstract

This article discusses image theories of missionaries in sixteenth-century New Spain. It contextualizes the practice of adapting indigenous Mesoamerican iconography by mendicant friars for the purpose of evangelization within contemporaneous European debates about Egyptian hieroglyphs, seen by many authors in the period as akin to the pictographs used in central Mexico. The article argues that the supposed universal legibility of these visual systems prompted friars not only to use images as tools for teaching Church doctrine, but to incorporate select indigenous symbols into Christian devotional art. Such formal similarities between Egyptian, Mexican, and Christian iconography were used in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as evidence for the original unity of all religions. The text outlines the connection with Renaissance theories about the special quality of Egyptian hieroglyphs which were—in the Hermetic tradition—said to contain ancient wisdom entrusted to the Egyptians by God. Comparison between Egyptian writing and Mexican pictographic symbols raised a debate on whether the latter had the same dignity as the former. With this debate in mind, the Christian iconographies integrating pre-Hispanic glyphs gained a different status.

KEYWORDS:

• Mexico
• transculturation
• accommodation
• pictographs
• Egyptian hieroglyphs
• mendicants
• Jesuits
• Athanasius Kircher
• Lorenzo Pignoria

Notes

1. Toribio de Benavente, or Motolinía, Memoriales o libro de las cosas de Nueva España y de los naturales de ella, ed. Edmundo O’Gorman (Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, 1971), 5. Author translation.

2. Louise M Burkhart, The Slippery Earth: Nahua-Christian Moral Dialogue in Sixteenth-Century Mexico (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1989); and idem., Holy Wednesday: A Nahua Drama from Early Colonial Mexico (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996).

1. José de Acosta, Historia natural y moral de las Indias, reprint in two volumes of the 1590 (Seville) edition (Madrid, 1894), vol. 2, 110 (Book 5, Chapter 27).

2. See Peter Burke’s use of the term “cultural exchange” in Peter Burke, Kultureller Austausch, translated from the English by Burkhardt Wolf (Frankfurt a. M: Suhrkamp, 2000), 9–40, here 19f.

3. See Solange Alberro, Del gachupín al criollo. O de cómo los españoles de México dejaron de serlo (Mexico: Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Históricos, 1992), esp. 13–54.

4. The term “acculturation” is thus to be found mainly in earlier research; see Richard Nebel, “Europäische Mission in Neu-Spanien: Auswirkungen auf die Volksreligiosität in Mexico,” in Thomas Beck, Annerose Menninger, and Thomas Schleich (eds), Kolumbus’ Erben. Europäische Expansion und überseeische Ethnien im ersten Kolonialzeitalter, 1415–1815 (Darmstadt: Wiss. Buchges., [Abt. Verl.], 1992), 39–62, here 55. For criticism of the term, see Gauvin Alexander Bailey, Art on the Jesuit Missions in Asia and Latin America, 1542–1773 (Toronto/Buffalo/London: University of Toronto Press, 1999), 22.

5. With regard to the following, see René Schiffmann, “Roma felix. Aspekte der städtebaulichen Gestaltung unter Papst Sixtus V,” Europäische Hochschulschriften, series 28, Kunstgeschichte, vol. 36 (Bern/Frankfurt a. M./New York: Lang, 1985), 151–4 and 160f.; and Erik Iversen, Obelisks in Exile, vol. 1, The Obelisks of Rome (Copenhagen: G.E.C. Gad, 1968), 26f.

6. With regard to the following, see Rudolf Preimesberger, “Obeliscus Pamphilius. Beiträge zur Vorgeschichte und Ikonographie des Vierströmebrunnens auf Piazza Navona,” Münchener Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst 3, F 25 (1974): 77–162, here 95.

7. Ibid., 109; for further sixteenth-century source texts in which obelisks were identified as sun cult objects symbolizing the rays of the sun, see Schiffmann, “Roma Felix,” 153, note 7.

8. Preimesberger, “Obeliscus Pamphilius,” 111.

9. Andreas Haus, Der Petersplatz in Rom und sein Statuenschmuck. Neue Beiträge, thesis (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1970), 87f.

10. Schiffmann, “Roma Felix,” 170f.; and Iversen, Obelisks in Exile, 71f.

11. Preimesberger, “Obeliscus Pamphilius,” 109–12.

12. “Ma questa figura fu giudicata misteriosa da gli Egizi e simile a quella de’ raggi del sole, anzi con questo nome stesso, cioè ‘raggi del sole’, solevano da quella nazione esser nominati: e da’ re de l’Egitto al sole furono consacrati o al figliuolo del sole […]. Ora sono consacrati a la croce, ne la quale il sole intelligibile parve eclissarsi per interposizione de la sua umanità […].” Torquato Tasso, “Il conte o vero de l’imprese,” in idem., Dialoghi, ed. Giovanni Baffetti, 2 vols (Milan, 1998) vol. 2, 1111–213, here 1114 [English translation from Margit Kern’s (M.K.) German version; see William S. Heckscher, “Bernini’s Elephant and Obelisk,” The Art Bulletin 29 (1947): 155–82, here 178, note 124].

13. Giovanni Battista Casalio, De veteribus Aegyptiorum ritibus (Rome, 1644), 19, cited from Heckscher, “Bernini’s Elephant and Obelisk,” 179.

14. Samuel Y. Edgerton, Theaters of Conversion. Religious Architecture and Indian Artisans in Colonial Mexico (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2001), 80f.; and Jaime Lara, City, Temple, Stage. Eschatological Architecture and Liturgical Theatrics in New Spain (Notre Dame:University of Notre Dame Press, 2004), 13f.

15. Iversen, Obelisks in Exile, 85.

16. With regard to the following, see ibid., 91f.

17. “Hieroglyphica sapienta quid sit” “Hieroglyphica Aegyptiorum Sapientia, testantibus omnibus Veterum Scriptorum monumentis, nihil aliud erat, quam scientia de Deo, divinisque virtutibus, scientia ordinis Universi, scientia Intelligentiarum Mundi praesidum, quam Pythagoras & Plato, teste Plutarcho, ex Mercurii columnis, id est, ex Obeliscis didicerunt. (…) Et uti hieroglyphica Sapientia maximarum rerum arcanarumque sacramenta continebat, ita quoque non nisi iis, quibus ad Regni solium spes erat, sacerdotalis ordinis hominibus, sub arcto & rigoroso silentio in Adytis, uti probatum fuit, tradebatur.” Athanasius Kircher, Oedipus Aegyptiacus, hoc est, universalis hieroglyphicae veterum doctrinae, temporum iniuria abolitae, instauratio, 3 vols (Rome, 1652–4), vol. 3 Anacephalaeosis, Chapter 1, Arg. 3, 567 [English translation from M.K.’s German version].

18. With regard to the following, see Aleida Assmann and Jan Assmann, “Hieroglyphen: altägyptische Ursprünge abendländischer Grammatologie,” inidem. (eds), Hieroglyphen Stationen einer anderen abendländischen Grammatologie (Archaeologie der literarischen Kommunikation, vol. 8) (Munich: Fink, 2003), 9–25; and Ludwig Volkmann, Bilderschriften der Renaissance. Hieroglyphik und Emblematik in ihren Beziehungen und Fortwirkungen (Leipzig: K.W. Hiersemann, 1923).

19. Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, ed. Robin Robbins, 2 vols (Oxford: Clarendon, 1981), vol. 1, 419, Book 5, Chapter 20; see Assmann and Assmann, “Hieroglyphen”, 22.

20. “Sunt characteres a nostris valde dissimiles, taxillis, hamis, laqueis, limis, stellisque, ac formis alteriusmodi lineatim exarati more nostro. Aegyptias fere formas emulant, interlineatim hominum, animaliumque spens, regum praecipue, ac procerum depingunt. Quare credendum est ibi esse maiorum cuiusque regis gesta conscriptas […] Nil differre a nostris libris clausi videntur, legum etiam, & sacrificiorum, ac ceremoniarum ritus, computationes quoque, & Astronomicas annotationes quasdam, seminandique rationes, & tempora, libris commendare creduntur.” Petrus Martyr de Angleria, De orbe novo decades, reprint of the Alcalá de Henares edition (1530) in idem., Opera, with an introduction by Erich Woldan (Graz: Akademische Druck-u. Verlagsanstalt, 1966), Decade 4, Chapter 8, 155 [English translation from the German version in: Peter Martyr d’Anghiera, Acht Dekaden über die neue Welt, Texte zur Forschung series, vol. 5, translated, introduced, and annotated by Hans Klingelhöfer, 2 vols (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1972), vol. 1, 371].

21. With regard to the following, see Roswitha Kramer, “‘ex ultimo angulo orbis’: Atanasio Kircher y el Nuevo Mundo,” in Karl Kohut and Sonia V. Ros (ed.), Pensamiento europeo y cultura colonial, Textos y estudios coloniales y de la independencia, vol. 4 (Frankfurt a. M.: Vervuert, 1997), 320–77.

22. Kircher, Oedipus Aegyptiacus, vol. 1, Syntagma 5, Chapter 5, 417–23.

23. Ibid., vol. 3, Diatribe I, Chapter 4, 28–36.

24. Giovanni Battista Ramusio, Terzo volume delle navigatione et viaggi (Venice, 1565), 4 (Prologue).

25. Prior to Kircher, Michele Mercati, in his extensive work De Gli Obelischi di Roma (1589), was perhaps the most prominent of those who rejected the comparison. See Kramer, “‘ex ultimo angulo orbis,’” 355.

26. “Cum itaque dicti characteres ex varijs animantium, herbarum, instrumentorum, similiumque figuris constructi sint; plerique hanc literaturam prorsus hieroglyphicam esse sibi persuaserunt. Verum hanc opinionem falsam esse, ex ijs, quae paulo post aducemus, sat superque patebit. Siquidem certum est, nihil sub ijs latere arcanis rationibus involutum; sed figurae ipsae positae, ipsas quasi actiones seu seriem rerum gestarum exprimunt, & non secus ac picturam quandam rei gestae exhibent.” Kircher, Oedipus Aegyptiacus, vol. 3, Diatribe I, Chapter 4, 28 [English translation from M.K.’s German version].

27. “Ex quibus patet hanc scripturam seu literaturam Veterum Mexicanorum nihil aliud esse, quam rudem quandam rerum gestarum per suas proprias imagines exhibitionem, nullo mysterio, subtilitate ingenij, aut eruditione fultam.” Kircher, Oedipus Aegyptiacus, vol. 3, Diatribe I, Chapter 4, 33 [English translation from M.K.’s German version].

28. Sergio Donadoni, “I geroglifici di Athanasius Kirchner,” Eugenio Lo Sardo (ed.), in Athanasius Kircher. Il Museo del Mondo, catalog of exhibition at Palazzo Venezia (Rome: De Luca, 2001), 101–10; and Iversen, Obelisks in Exile, 91. Regarding Kircher’s theory of language, see also Thomas Leinkauf, “Lullismus, Kircher,” in Helmut Holzhey (ed.), Grundriß der Geschichte der Philosopie, founded by Friedrich Ueberweg, fully revised edition, Die Philosophie des 17. Jahrhunderts, vol. 4, Das Heilige Römische Reich Deutscher Nation, Nord- und Ostmitteleuropa, eds. Helmut Holzhey and Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann (Basel: Schwabe, 2001), first half-volume, 235–90, here 278; and Thomas Leinkauf, Mundus combinatus, Studien zur Struktur der barocken Universalwissenschaft am Beispiel Athanasius Kirchers SJ (1602–1680) (Berlin: Akad.-Verl., 1993), 235–67.

29. Regarding philosophia perennis, see Charles B. Schmitt, “Perrenial (!) Philosophy. From Agostino Steuco to Leibnitz,” Journal of the History of Ideas 27 (1966): 505–32; Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann, Philosophia perennis. Historische Umrisse abendländischer Spiritualität in Antike, Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit (Frankfurt a. M: Suhrkamp, 1998); Monika Neugebauer-Wölk, “Esoterik in der Frühen Neuzeit. Zum Paradigma der Religionsgeschichte zwischen Mittelalter und Moderne,” Zeitschrift für historische Forschung 27 (2000): 321–64; and Peter-André Alt and Volkhard Wels, introduction in Konzepte des Hermetismus in der Literatur der Frühen Neuzeit, Berliner Mittelalter- und Frühneuzeitforschung, vol. 8 (Göttingen: V & R Unipress, 2010), 7–22, here 10.

30. Madeleine V. David, Le débat sur les écritures et l’hiéroglyphe aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles et l’application de la notion de déchiffrement aux écritures mortes (Paris: SEVPEN, 1965), 53f.; and Michael Friedrich, “Chiffren oder Hieroglyphen? Die chinesische Schrift im Abendland,” in Assmann and Assmann (eds), Hieroglyphen, 89–116, here 109f.

31. With regard to the following, see Kramer, “‘ex ultimo angulo orbis,’” 363f.

32. For biographical details, see Linda Báez-Rubí, Die Rezeption der Lehre des Ramon Llull in der Rhetorica Christiana (Perugia, 1579) des Franziskaners Fray Diego Valadés, Europäische Hochschulschriften, series 3, Geschichte und ihre Hilfswissenschaften, vol. 1005 (Frankfurt a. M: Lang, 2004), 27–33. Báez-Rubí focuses entirely on the reception of Llull in the work of Valadés. She only mentions hieroglyphs briefly in her research report (p. 37), without developing the topic any further.

33. “Id illis [= Indis] commune fuit cum Aegyptijs, qui per eiusmodi quoque figuras sensus mentis effingebant, celeritatem designantes per accipitrem, Vigilantiam per cocodrilum, per leonem Imperium: De quibus vide Orium Apollinem de literis hieroglyphicis.” Diego Valadés, Retórica Christiana, reprint of the Perugia 1579 edition with Spanish translation by Tarsicio Herrera Zapién (Mexico City, 1989), Part 2, Chapter 27, 93 [English translation from M.K.’s German version].

34. Pauline Moffitt Watts, “Hieroglyphs of Conversion: Alien Discourses in Diego Valadés’s Rhetorica Christiana,” Memorie Domenicane n.s. 22 (1991): 405–33.

35. “Hinc viri religiosi in sacris concionibus quas apud Indigetes habent, ad instillandum illis perfectius, & manifestius doctrinam divinam: utuntur inauditis & stupendis figuris, in eumque finem habent aulea quibus intexta sunt capita religionis Christiane, ut sunt symbolum Apostolorum, Dacalogus [!], septem peccata mortalia cum sua numerosa sobole, & circumstantijs, septena opera misericordiae, & septem sacramenta, via & ordine artificiosissimo, quod quidem inventum praeter caetera elegans est & memorabile, […] vt in sequenti stemmate videre licet. Undè aeternam laudem meruerunt eius inventi auctores. Quem honorem quotquot ex D. Francisci societate in novo docendi modo primi desudavimus iure nostro vendicamus. Huc pertinent editiones ille, & imagines quae tanto omnium aplausu in lucem prodeunt, in quibus gravissima nobis iniuria infertur quod alij sibi gloriam adscribunt, & nostris laborius famam aucupantur, cum eam rem nos invenerimus […].” Valadés, Retórica Christiana, Part 2, Chapter 27, 95 [English translation from M.K.’s German version].

36. See Carolyn S. Dean, “Praying with Pictures: A Reading of the Libro de Oraciones,” Journal of Latin American Lore 15 (1989): 211–73, here 212. Dean has shown, however, that in their blending of a diverse range of symbols, the surviving catechisms are far more complicated in structure. See also Roland Schmidt-Riese and Gabriele Wimböck, “Katechismen in Bildern. Texte ohne Worte,” Mitteilung des Sonderforschungsbereichs 573, Pluralisierung und Autorität in der Frühen Neuzeit issue 2 (2007): 25–32.

37. Watts, “Hieroglyphs of Conversion,“ 428; see also Azteken, exhibition catalog (London: Royal Academy of Arts, Berlin: Martin-Gropius-Bau, Bonn: Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 2003), 495, cat. no. 358.

38. Pablo Escalante Gonzalbo, “Cristo su sangre y los indios. Exploraciones iconográficas sobre el arte mexicano del siglo XVI,” in Herencias indígenas, tradiciones europeas y la mirada europea. Indigenes Erbe, europäische Traditionen und der europäische Blick. Akten des Kolloquiums der Carl Justi-Vereinigung und des Instituto Cervantes Bremen (Bremen: Vervuert, 2000), Ars Iberica et Americana vol. 7, ed. Helga von Kügelgen (Frankfurt a. M., 2002), 71–93, here 73; regarding the jade bead as a symbol of blood sacrifice, see also Louise M. Burkhart, Holy Wednesday. A Nahua Drama from Early Colonial Mexico (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania

39. Escalante Gonzalbo, “Cristo su sangre y los indios,” 73.

40. See Leinkauf, Mundus combinatus, 14; and Leinkauf, “Lullismus, Kircher,” (1) 271f.

41. Leinkauf, “Lullismus, Kircher,” (1) 244.

42. On the Lullist dignitates in Valadés, see Báez-Rubí, Die Rezeption der Lehre, 99–130.

43. Leinkauf, Mundus combinatus, 16–18.

44. With regard to the following, see Jacques Lafaye, Quetzalcóatl et Guadalupe. La formation de la conscience nationale au Mexique (Paris: Gallimard, 1974), 208–19.

45. Lafaye, Quetzalcóatl et Guadalupe, 238f.; and Filippo Mignini, “Das Europa Matteo Riccis und China, die andere Welt,” in Filippo Mignini (ed.), Matteo Ricci. Europa am Hofe der Ming, exhibition catalog (Berlin: Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 2005), 13–23.

46. Lafaye, Quetzalcóatl et Guadalupe, 198.

47. See ibid., 236f.

48. “Déste dizen que tomaron muchas ceremonias que conforman con la ley evangélica que en esta tierra usavan y los altares en que ponían a los ydolos que eran como los nuestros, y por esto entienden muchos que era algún gran ministro del Sancto Evangelio y persuádense más a esto los que encontraron en un pueblo que está junto a la mar en esta tierra un qüũero curtido muy antiguo donde estavan figurados todos los misterios de nuestra fee sin faltar ninguno en figueras de Yndios, aunque con muchos yerros.” Juan de Tovar, “Relacion del origen de los Yndios que havitan en esta Nueva España segun sus Historias,” in Jacques Lafaye (ed.), Manuscrit Tovar. Origines et croyances des indiens du Mexique (Graz: Akademische Druck u. Verlagsanstalt, 1972), 7–84, here 73 [English translation from M.K.’s German version].

49. On the Mesoamerican gods, see Edgar Lein, “Imagini Degli Dei Indiani. La representación de las divinidades indianas por Vincenzo Cartari,” in Herencias indígenas, ed. Helga von Kügelgen, 225–58; Sabine MacCormack, “Limits of Understanding. Perceptions of Greco-Roman and Amerindian Paganism in Early Modern Europe,” in Karen Ordahl Kupperman (ed.), America in European Consciousness, 1493–1750 (Chapel Hill/London: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), 79–129, here 87–93; and Maria Effinger, Cornelia Logemann, and Ulrich Pfisterer (eds), with the assistance of Margit Krenn, Götterbilder und Götzendiener in der Frühen Neuzeit. Europas Blick auf fremde Religionen, exhibition catalog, University Library Heidelberg, exhibition by Junior Research Group “Prinzip Personifikation,” Transcultural Studies of Heidelberg University and the Institut für Kunstgeschichte of Ludwig Maximilian University Munich (Heidelberg: Winter, 2012), 170–3, cat. no. II.14.

50. Azteken, 489, cat. no. 346.

51. Vincenzo Cartari, Imagini delli dei de gl’antichi, reprint of the Venice 1647 edition, Instrumentaria artium, vol. 1, introduced by Walter Koschatzky (Graz, 1963), 361f. [English translation from M.K.’s German version].

52. Ibid., 362.

53. As Lein has emphasized, no parallels are drawn with the antique gods in the codex. Lein, “Imagini Degli Dei Indiani,” 229.

54. See ibid., 230.

55. José Corona Núñez, Antigüedades de México basadas en la recopilación de Lord Kingsborough, 4 vols (Mexico City: Secretaria de Hacienda y Crédito Público, 1964–7), vol. 3, 8; and Eloise Quiñones Keber, “Collecting Cultures: A Mexican Manuscript in the Vatican Library,” in Claire Farago (ed.), Reframing the Renaissance. Visual Culture in Europe and Latin America 1450–1650 (New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 1995), 228–42, here 231.

56. “[…] poiche in mezo à questa barbarie riluceva pure un poco di lume di nove cause superiori, che noi chiamiamo Cieli, & di più della prima causa, nella quale adombravano così à modo loro l’ineffabile misterio della Santissima Trinità.” Cartari, Imagini delli dei de gl’antichi, 364 [English translation from M.K.’s German version].

57. Ibid., 367.

58. See Lein, “Imagini Degli Dei Indiani,” 234.

59. Cartari, Imagini delli dei de gl’antichi, 368 [English translation from M.K.’s German version]. These parallels between the pagan and Christian annunciation scenes had already been included by Pedro de los Ríos as one of the parodies and deceptions of the demon; Corona Núñez, Antigüedades de México basadas, vol. 3, 26.

60. Folio 1v is followed by fol. 35r., fol. 2v., fol. 7r., fol. 7v and fol. 10v. The illustrations occurring in between and many that are positioned afterwards were not taken into consideration, however.

61. “Hora questo Quetzalcóatl fu chiamato ancora Topilczin, cioè mio molto amato figliuolo, e dicono, […] che cominciasse ad invocar li Dei, e far loro sacrificij, co’l suo sangue medesimo, che si cavava dalla persona con spine […].” Cartari, Imagini delli dei de gl’antichi, 369 [English translation from M.K.’s German version].

62. Lein “Imagini Degli Dei Indiani,” 235. Lein comments on Pignoria’s divergence from the order of illustrations in his model without attaching any particular relevance to this.

63. “[…] raccontavano i paesani, come questo rito era stato lasciato in quell’Isola da un huomo più rilucente del Sole, che morì in Croce, e passò per là al tempo de maggiori.” Cartari, Imagini delli dei de gl’antichi, 370f. [English translation from M.K.’s German version].

64. Ibid., 372.

65. “Vado confermando tutta questa mia congettura della religione di questi Paesi conforme all’Egittia, con quello, che scrive Francesco Lopez di Gomara, cioè che i Mexicani spiegavono i concetti dell’animo loro con figure simili à Gieroglifi dell’Egitto. Scrive in conformità Pietro Martire, che i caratteri delle scritture loro sono Dadi, Hami, Lacci, Lime, Stelle, e cose si fatte distese in righe all’usanza nostra, & che imitano le antiche lettere dell’Egitto. Et mi ricordo ne’fogli del Cardinal AMULIO, di vedere si fatte Pitture, con le esplicationi loro; per essempio dipingevano un Cervo per l’huomo ingrato; una pietra con una spiga di Mahiz secca, sopravi per la sterilità; una Lucertola per l’abondanza d’acqua; una canna di Mahiz verde per l’abondanza.” Cartari, Imagini delli dei de gl’antichi, 373 [English translation from M.K.’s German version].