How The Codices Boturini, Azcatitlan, And Aubin

In Portraying the Aztec Past: The Codices Boturini, Azcatitlan, and Aubin, Angela Herren Rajagopalan explores how the practice of Indian-produced codices was altered during and after the Spanish Conquest, creating a hybrid culture displayed through art and writing. Pre-conquest, the Aztecs recorded their historical events, cultural traditions, and other significant aspects of their lives through pictography created by tlacuiloque or artist-scribes. These codices were usually presented with an oral presentation, helping the Native audience understand each pictograph. However, once the Spanish Conquest began, Spanish culture and traditions were forced on the Aztecs, including altering Aztec pictographic records. The three codices discussed in
Previously, details presented orally were added visually, mimicking European techniques demonstrating the hybrid culture between the Aztecs and the Spanish. Rajagopalan states that although the codex’s format seems European, the compositional and stylistic analysis claims that the tlacuiloque embedded Indian traditions and narratives within the seemingly European-style scene. Despite the European format, the author maintains an Indian perspective throughout the codex, preserving traditional Indian pictographs without modifying the content to appeal to a Spanish audience. As there was evidence of Spanish influence throughout the Codex Azcatitlan, Rajagopalan claims, along with historian Mara Castaeda de la Paz, who had done extensive research on the three codices, that the codex was made around the second half of the seventeenth