The Aztecs

Weltmuseum Wien

NOW CLOSED

Mictlantecuhtli (detail; 1430–1502), Aztec, Mexico. Museo del Templo Mayor, Mexico City. Photo: © D.R. Archivo Digital de las Colecciones del Museo Nacional de Antropología, Secretaría de Cultura – INAH

This display of some 200 objects moves from the Mexican coast – where Hernán Cortés landed in 1519 – to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán, exploring how art, economics and religion varied throughout the empire. Among the highlights is a towering 15th-century sculpture of Mictlantecuhtli, the god of death, from the House of the Eagles in Malinalco. Meanwhile, in the museum’s permanent collection, the Weltmuseum’s famous headdress of quetzal feathers – the only surviving Aztec feather headdress in the world – goes back on show after being comprehensively cleaned and conserved. Find out more from the Weltmuseum Wien’s website.

Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary here

Quetzal-feather headdress (c. 1520), Aztec, Mexico. Weltmuseum Wien. Photo: © KHM-Museumsverband

Mictlantecuhtli (detail; c. 1430–1502), Aztec, Mexico.

Mictlantecuhtli (1430–1502), Aztec, Mexico. Museo del Templo Mayor, Mexico City. Photo: © D.R. Archivo Digital de las Colecciones del Museo Nacional de Antropología, Secretaría de Cultura – INAH

Greenstone figurine with calendar signs (250–750), Teotihuacan, reworked by Aztec artists, Mexico. Photo: Paul Schimweg; © Museum am Rothenbaum Hamburg