Recataloged to 17-379a-c

Museum number:

3-584

Permalink:

ark:/21549/hm21030000584

Alternate number:

17-379a-c (museum number (recataloged to))

Accession number:

Acc.59

Description:

Recto of original, Facsimile painting of a codex (the Genealogy of Quauhquechollan Macuilxochitepec). Signed in lower right corner, " Copeo/ Genaro Blacio/1902/Puebla Mexico

Donor:

Phoebe Apperson Hearst

Collection place:

Puebla city, Puebla, Mexico

Maker or artist:

Genaro Blacio

Collector:

Zelia Nuttall

Collection date:

before 1905

Object type:

ethnography

Object class:

Placeholder record (no associated object)

Production date:

1902

Accession date:

1902

Department:

Mexico, Central America, and Caribbean area

Dimensions:

height 85 centimeters and width 76 centimeters

Title:

Genealogy of Quauhquechollan Macuilxochitepec (Title)

Comment:

Summary, Jessica Stair, 04/26/16 This copy, along with a copy of a large-scale lienzo (3-582, recataloged to 17-379a-c), was made by artist Genaro Blacio in Puebla in 1902. The original genealogy and lienzo were created in the 16th century and are currently held in the Museo Casa de Alfeñique. The recto (3-584) and verso (3-583) sides are painted on two different pieces of canvas. The copies were commissioned by Zelia Nuttall for the Museum in Berkeley. Another copy of the genealogy was made at the time. It was painted on two separate pieces of hide and now resides in the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Glass (1964) states that the museum purchased it from Nuttall in 1904. There are two other copies of the genealogy at the Bibliotéca Nacional de Antropología e Historia in Mexico City. One copy is painted on both sides of a deer skin and measures 82 x 79 cm. The artist and date are unknown. It was donated to the Museum by Ignacio Gorozpe in 1940. The other copy is now lost, but the inventory of 1934 lists a Códice de Cuaquechollan, on paper with the dimensions of 85 x 87 cm. It is labeled as number 17 in the inventory. It is possible that this copy is the one that the artist Luis Garcés made of a manuscript of Cuauhquechollan in 1892 that was not sent to the exhibition of Madrid. Another copy was made by Rodolfo Barthez in 1933, but it is now lost. Information about the original genealogy: Other names for it include the Códice Huaquechula and the Códice de Guaquechula. The substrate of the original is deer skin, and it is painted on both sides. The size of the original is 83 x 80 cm. In 1892, the genealogy along with the Lienzo de Quahquechollan was in the collection of the Academia de Pintura de Puebla. We do not know where they were before this time, although it is possible that the genealogy was in the collection of José Manso around 1848. Both the lienzo and genealogy were later moved to the Casa de Alfeñique. Description of the Content (summarized from Asselbergs, pp. 49–55) A genealogy of the rulers of Quahquechollan is depicted on the recto side. The upper part shows a toponymic glyph of Quauhquechollan consisting of a hill, an eagle, and five flowers. The five flowers refer to Acapetlahuacan (also known as Huehuaquauhquechollan or Atlixco), a temporary dwelling place for the people of Quauhquechollan. Around 1400 they were forced from Acapetlahuacan to their current site at Quauhquechollan. Below the glyph is a wall and the river Huitzilac. Surrounding the glyph are the nine founders of the community. A line with footprints comes from one of the founders named Tetoa_honichal, from whom twelve lords are descended. It forms a genealogy of local rulers and sometimes their family members that fill the rest of the document. Apart from the nine founders, there are a total of seventy-three figures depicted. Their names are indicated with a name glyph and alphabetical gloss. There were nine barrios of Quauhquechollan, which were founded by the nine founders. The genealogy represents the genealogy of one of the barrios. There are five tecpan images (palaces). At the bottom, goods and merchandise are depicted with accompanying text, which mentions cloaks, cacao, sali (white medicinal sand?), obsidian, copal, jewels, and chilli. The bottom right portion of the original document is cut away, and a replacement piece of hide is added, upon which a new couple is painted by a different artist. The man depicted may have been a later lord of Quauhquechollan. He is not named. The genealogy was likely composed to establish rights and authority of the dynasty and to legitimize its makers’ position on the basis of their descent from a founder of the altepetl. The document may have been copied from a pre-Hispanic manuscript. It likely originally served within the indigenous sphere but may have also been used in a Spanish context.

Images:

Legacy documentation: