More accustomed to plucking the feathers of the New World than to being moved by its subtleties, the conquistador was also more familiar with crows than with hummingbirds. He hadn’t imagined that feathers could be as fascinating as jewels, especially when they were jade or turquoise in color.
Imported from the hot and humid lands of Amazonia to Teotihuacan, these feathers were associated by their colors and their provenance with fertility, abundance and the cradle of the Aztec cosmogony.
Amanteca craftsmen are, through the feathers they work, inseparable from transformation, from the passage from impotence to power: they make gods through the object of their art, claiming to be the feather-making god Coyotlinahual, who metamorphosed a vulgar serpent in Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent, god of civilization and order, presiding over the rhythm of time in all its forms. The post-conquest texts even imply that he predicted by his own myth the time of the advent of the Hispanics. But if the feathers make him what he is, it is because the feathers are the common denominator of the Aztec gods. There is no god without feathers and everything that has feathers is likened to a god.
The conquistador is at the antipodes of the origin myth of the colors of birds. It only brings disorder when the feathers are, on the contrary, the foundation of order in Mesoamerican societies. This myth evokes a mythical fight during which birds with undifferentiated plumage defeat a monster with multicolored blood or skin. The colors of the creature are shared as trophies among the birds: to the bravest the bright colours, to the cowards the dull ones. From this myth arises the distinction: the feather characterizes the birds and the colors differentiate the species. The Man devoid of any distinctive ethnic sign makes his livery out of feathers. The most colorful feathers, the most luxurious by their colors and their provenance then characterize power. And in 1519, when the arrival of Hernan Cortés (1495 – 1547) disrupted the order, the exchange of ritual gifts initiated by Moctezuma included works of feathers.
It is not known whether the headdress – much restored – kept today at the Weltmuseum in Vienna was part of the presents offered by Moctezuma to Cortès. But this penacho, almost 2 meters in diameter, is the only surviving pre-Hispanic headdress. Despite its superb quetzal feathers, order has not returned to Aztec society, although its gods have managed to infiltrate the enemy. As early as 1524, the amanteca produced paintings for Europe depicting biblical scenes and characters made entirely of these feathers, which signal the metamorphosis and characterize the gods. Eventually, Quetzalcoatl may have only taken on a new form, revenge of the volatility of the Aztec gods on obtuse monotheism.
