Aztecs

This sumptuous volume, a permanent record of the first exhibition in Britain specifically dedicated to the art and culture of the Aztecs, explores the splendours of an extraordinary civilisation. Monumental gods in wood and stone, gold jewellery, turquoise mosaics, featherwork objects and polychrome ceramics appear alongside many of the most important Pre-Hispanic and early colonial pictorial codices, extraordinary testaments to the Aztec empire which provide an alternative history to contemporary Spanish accounts of the Conquest and subsequent colonisation. Specially commissioned essays by leading Mexican, European and American authorities explore key elements of this fascinating world, among them cosmology and religion, kingship, warfare and sacrifice, and introduce over 350 works, some of which will be exhibited for the first time. The accompanying scholarly catalogue entries have been written by curators from 66 lending institutions in three continents. This magnificent book, a landmark publication in Aztec studies, is an essential purchase for anyone interested in the brilliantly coloured and often bloody history of North America. Book jacket.

Frances Berdan: Professor of Anthropology and Co-ordinator of Latin American Studies Program, California State University Warwick Bray: Professor Emeritus, Institute of Archaeology, University College, London Isabel Carlisle: Independent Curator Joanne Harwood: Department of Art History and Theory, University of Essex Miguel Leon-Portilla: Professor Emeritus, Instituto de Investigaciones Historicas, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico Adrian Locke: Co-ordinating curator of the exhibition Alfredo Lopez Austin: Professor Emeritus, Instituto de Investigaciones Antropologicas, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico Leonardo Lopez Lujan: Senior Researcher, Museo del Templo Mayor, Mexico City Eduardo Matos Moctezuma: Co-ordinator of the Proyecto Templo Mayor, Mexico City Esther Pasztory: Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University, New York Jeffrey Quilter: Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC Felipe Solis Olguin: Director of the Museo Nacional de Antropologia, Mexico City Hugh Thomas: The Lord Thomas of Swynnerton Eleanor Wake: Department of Spanish and Latin American Studies, Birkbeck College, University of London