Art of the Americas After 1300

Question 1

The Founding of Tenochtitlan

Answer 1

1545
Mexico, Artec
Page from Codex Mendoza
Commissioner: Antonia Mendoza
Commissioned by Indigenous artists for presentation to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (who was also king of Spain) so that the emperor could learn about his new subjects. The frontispiece of the Codex Mendoza shows a schematized version of Tenochtitlan and its founding, Mexica war victories, and the Spanish invasions

Question 2

Wamoum Belt

Answer 2

1680s
Woodlands peoples made belts and strings of cylindrical purple and white beads—made from whelk and clam shells—called wampum. The Iroquois and Delaware peoples used wampum to keep records (the purple and white patterns served as memory aids) and exchanged belts of wampum to seal treaties
The belt, with two figures of equal size holding hands, suggests the mutual respect enjoyed by the Delaware and Penn’s Society of Friends

Question 3

Blackfoot Women Raising a Tipi

Answer 3

Photograph c. 1900

Tipis were the property and responsibility of women
Women were able to finish a tipi in than an hour
Women quilled, beaded, and embroidered tipi linings, as well as backrests, clothing, and equipment

The patterns with which tipis were decorated, like the tipis’ proportions and colors, varied from nation to nation, family to family, and individual to individual. In general, the bottom was covered with traditional motifs and the center section held personal images.

Question 4

Hosteen Klah Whirling Log Ceremony

Answer 4

Sand painting, woven into tapestry c. 1925
Depicts part of the Navajo creation myth
The Holy People create the earth’s surface and divide it into four parts. They create humans, and bring forth corn, beans, squash, and tobacco—the four sacred plants.
The four Holy People (the elongated figures) surround the image, and the guardian figure of Rainbow Maiden frames the scene on three sides

Question 5

Raphael Study for Christ’s Charge to Peter

Answer 5

C. 1515

Enacting the moment when Jesus addresses his apostles

The cartoons were created in Raphael’s workshop between 1515 and 1516. Raphael was clearly the intellect behind the compositions, and he participated in the actual preparation and execution. This was a prestigious commission that would reflect directly on the reputation of the master. But he could not have accomplished this imposing task in a little over a year without the collaboration of numerous assistants. The cartoons were first drawn with charcoal on paper (160–170 separate sheets were glued together to form the expanse of a single tapestry), then overpainted with color, and finally sent to Brussels, where they were woven into tapestries in the workshop of Pieter van Aelst.

Question 6

Shop of Peter van Aelst, Brussels, after cartoons by Raphael and assistants Christ’s Charge to Peter

Answer 6

Woven 1517, installed 1519 in the Sistine Chapel
After they had been used to create the tapestries hung in the Sistine Chapel, Raphael’s cartoons remained in Brussels, where several additional sets of tapestries were made from them—one for Henry VIII of England, another for Francis I of France—before seven surviving cartoons were acquired in 1623 by the future Charles I of England.
They remain in the British Royal Collection