Stop 1565

Male Narrator: This mosaic of feathers - quetzal, cotinga, hummingbird, and macaw - is one of the oldest surviving examples of colonial featherwork. The combination of Mesoamerican materials and techniques with Christian imagery reflects a blending of indigenous cultures and Spanish influence after the Spanish Conquest. [percussion evoking period and mood] Indigenous artists created this mosaic at a school that taught traditional featherwork, but also trained the students in European artistic traditions.

The scene illustrates a key aspect of Catholic dogma [music ends],

transubstantiation, or the belief that during mass, the bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ. As Saint Gregory, a sixth-century pope, celebrates the sacrament of the Eucharist, a vision of Christ appears above him, a sign that proves the dogma’s truth. Kim Richter:

Kim Richter: It was created in 1539, two years after a papal bull was issued called Sublimus Deus that came out against the enslavement of indigenous people, against the seizure of their property, and it proclaimed the rationality of indigenous people, in part as evidenced by featherworks as we see here. And it indicated that because indigenous people were rational, they had the right to receive the sacraments, including the Eucharist.

Male Narrator: The Latin inscription around the border reveals that it was created as a gift for the pope to celebrate his decree in support of the indigenous peoples.

[soft percussion with native flute evoking period and mood]

Kim Richter: In the Colonial period, these featherworks became very popular. They were especially valued by the religious authorities, because they recognized them as being very precious objects that would have been suitable to celebrate something like the representation of Christ or the miracle of transubstantiation. And the iridescent nature of feathers was thought suitable to represent these transcendental subjects.

[music ends]