Aztec Feathers and Feather Art: Flying High With the Amanteca

In Aztec society, feathers were important symbols of fertility, wealth, power, and abundance, and gave the person wearing them a connection to the divine. In fact, feathers were considered more valuable than jade or turquoise! To truly understand Aztec art and culture, therefore, we have to understand Aztec feather work.

How Feathers Were Used in Aztec Culture

From clothing for the emperors and nobility, to portrayals of the gods and other works of high art, feathers featured prominently in Aztec culture. To understand why, let’s delve into the craftsmanship behind these great works of art and how they were used by the Aztecs themselves.

Feather Works as High Aztec Art

Feather work was considered one of the highest artforms in the Aztec world. Unlike other important modes of artistic expression, statue as sculpture and architecture, feather art seems to have been unique to the Aztecs (at least within the Mesoamerican tradition). The importance of this artform among the Aztec seems to stem from the association with feathers and the divine. Indeed, several Aztec gods were often portrayed wearing feathers.

To create feather art, Aztec feather workers utilized an array of feathers from across Central America (more on this below). Before the feathers were put into place, the design was sketched onto the paper or cotton backing by a separate artist. Once the design was finalized, the feather artist used maguey fiber and glue to adhere the feathers to the backing. Each feather was carefully placed and chosen for its color. By using this technique, Aztec feather artists created some of the most visually stunning works of art ever.

Writing in the years that followed the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, Bernadino de Sahagún noted that “the good feather worker is imaginative, diligent; meritorious of confidence, of trust. He practices the feather workers’ art; he glues, he arranges the feathers. He arranges different colors, takes measurements, matches feathers.”

Displays of Wealth for Aztec Nobility and Elite Warriors

Feather work was so revered as an artform among the Aztecs that not just anyone could do it. It was often reserved for members of the nobility. And, even then, was a hereditary practice passed down from father to son. Even though nobles were well-off, many practiced feather work as a way to safeguard against hard times. According to Sahagún, “when misery dominates, the artisanship will be a rampart, a buttress.”

Nobles didn’t just practice featherworking, they wore them too! In fact, by Aztec law, nobility were the only people in the empire allowed to wear feathered clothing and jewelry. Considered the most precious items in Aztec society, feather goods were a sure-fire way to display your place in society. 

But feathers didn’t just show up in nobles’ everyday wear. Eagle warriors, elite members of the Aztec military, also wore uniforms covered in feathers. Designed to symbolize the speed, stealth, and strength of eagles, eagle warriors’ uniforms would certainly have been crafted by high-level Aztec artists. Other warrior groups would have feathers decorating their shields and other parts of their armor, as shown in the image above.

Where Did Aztec Feather Workers Get All of These Feathers From?

To make all of this feather art, Aztec artisans needed hundreds of thousands of feathers each year. One piece of feather art could contain over 10,000 feathers by itself! 

So where did all these feathers come from? To obtain all these feathers, Aztec traders took advantage of the empire’s extensive trade routes. Bringing in feathers from both nearby communities and distant trading partners (sometimes as far as Guatemala), the Aztecs obtained a large variety of feather types.

The most precious feathers came from the quetzal bird. A beautiful iridescent green, Aztec artists incorporated quetzal feathers into headdresses, standards, and other objects for Aztec royalty. Native to an area of Central America that stretches from southern Mexico to Bolivia, the quetzal’s rarity in the Aztec area of Mexico made it even more valuable. To know just how important the quetzal was to the Aztecs, you just need to look at the name of one of their prominent gods, Quetzalcoatl. From Nahuatl to English, Quetzalcoatl’s name translates as “Quetzal-Feathered Serpent.” 

Apart from the quetzal, the feathers from other tropical birds were often incorporated in feather art. Some popular choices among Aztec feather workers included parrot feathers, macaws, the roseate spoonbill, and the blue cotinga. 

It was also common for feather workers to dye the feathers from ducks and turkeys. With the capital of the Aztec Empire located on Lake Texcoco, waterfowl would have been readily available.

Famous Aztec Feather Objects

Very few original feather works have survived from the Aztec era to the present day. Of those that remain, many were sent back to Europe following the Spanish conquest of Mexico as gifts for Kings Charles V and other well-to-do Spaniards. While a few have been unearthed in Mexico, this colonization of the feather works themselves has given rise to some contentiousness, as several important pieces of Aztec art are now housed in Vienna, Austria. 

By examining the few remaining pieces of Aztec feather art, we can come to a greater appreciation of this artform, the skill of the artists involved, and their importance to Aztec culture.

The Feather Headdress of Montezuma II

The Headdress of Montezuma II, also known as the Penacho of Montezuma II, is one of the most famous pieces of surviving Aztec art. Weighing 980 grams (2.16 lbs) and measuring 116 cm (3.8 ft) high and 175 cm (5.7 ft) wide, it is truly eye-catching. In its current state, it consists of 500 feathers from 250 birds (don’t ask how they figured that out). But, in its heyday, it would have contained 12,000 feathers gathered from quetzals, blue contingas, and flamingos. This magnificent work of feather art is also expertly ornamented with gold beads and jade disks.

Though no one knows for sure what Headdress of Montezuma was used for, most agree that the Aztec Emperor Montezuma would not actually have worn this. For as resplendent as it is, wearing a headdress that’s almost as wide as a person is tall would not have been very comfortable. It seems that Montezuma may have given this to Cortés as an act of diplomacy when they first met. At some point, the headdress made its way across the Spanish’s Atlantic shipping lanes to Europe, where it would have been given to Charles V.

Thanks to the intricacies of European dynastic marriages, the Habsburg monarchy ruled both Spain and Austria (as well as few other areas of Europe) for several centuries. I mention this because the Habsburgs ruled Spain when the Aztec Empire was toppled by an Indigenous-Spanish alliance and Cortés and other conquistadors sent back Aztec goods en masse. Because of this quirk of history, Montezuma’s Headdress remained stored and forgotten about in a castle in Austria for 300 years until it was rediscovered in 1878 and erroneously labeled as a “moorish hat.”

To this day, this piece of Aztec art remains mired in post-colonial controversy. It is currently housed in the National Museum (formerly Museum für Völkerkunde) in Vienna, Austria, and conservators have found that it would be too damaging to move it, despite attempts to repatriate it to Mexico.

Ahuitzotl Shield

One of the only five known feather shields to have survived to modern times, the Ahuitzotl Shield depicts a coyote made out of blue feathers and gold sheets. One the left side of the shield, the Aztec symbol for war, atl-tlachinolli (which translates to “the water, the fire”) is coming out of the coyote’s mouth. This symbolism has led researchers to believe that the coyote is shouting a war cry. 

To craft this beautiful piece of feather art, Aztec artisans began by making a circle out of pliable palm stem, which they reinforced with wood. They then used animal hide to make the backing of the shield. With the foundation in place, the artists carefully cut the feathers into small pieces, so they looked similar to stones used in mosaics. From there, they carefully adhered the feathers and pieces of gold to the backing.

Blue cotinga feathers were used to make the body of the coyote. A mixture of other feathers were used to make the rest of the shield, including scarlet macaw, roseate spoonbill, and yellow oriole.

The Ahuitzotl Shield gets its name from early scholarly confusion over the creature portrayed on the shield. It was originally identified as a mythological water-dwelling creature known as an ahuitzotl. More recent research, however, has shown this to be a coyote, one of the symbols of war among the Aztec. This new interpretation has led historians to think that this shield was used in rituals by one of the Aztec warrior societies.

Feathered Fan

This ornately carved and decorated fan was found during the 20th century at a site in Mexico City where one of the great Aztec temples once stood. Unearthed at the Tlaloc Temple, a place of worship dedicated to the Aztec rain god, the fan lay buried in the Sacred Precinct of the former Aztec capital for centuries. Once it was discovered, an expert feather worker restored the fan to its full glory. 

At the base of the fan, what was presumably the handle, Aztec artists carved the head of warrior who was dressed for battle. All around the top of the fan, the Aztec featherworkers used a variety of colorful feathers.

In Aztec society, fans were a common item among the nobility and the merchant class (pochtecah). Considered a luxury item, fans would have served as a status symbol for their owner, signaling their wealth with every cooling flap. By making a fan out of feathers, you were taking the opulence one step further.

Sources on Aztec Feathers

1. Aguilar-Moreno, Handbook to Life in the Aztec World (New York: Facts on File, 2006), 211
2. Michael E. Smith, The Aztecs, (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1996), 101-102
3. Davíd Carrasco with Scott Sessions, Daily LIfe of the Aztecs: People of the Sun and Earth (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998), 178
4. Smith, The Aztecs, 102
5. Carrasco with Scott Sessions, Daily LIfe of the Aztecs, 178-179
6. Aguilar-Moreno, Handbook to Life in the Aztec World, 211
7. “Quetzal,” britannica.com 
8. Smith, The Aztecs, 100-101
9. Aguilar-Moreno, Handbook to Life in the Aztec World, 211
10. Smith, The Aztecs, 100-101
11. Ian Mursell, “Moctezuma’s Headdress’ – an update 2018,” mexicolore.co.uk and Alicja Gluszek, “All the Fuss and Feathers in Pre-Columbian Art,” dailyartmagazine.com
12. Gluszek, “All the Fuss and Feathers in Pre-Columbian Art,” dailyartmagazine.com
13. Mursell, “Moctezuma’s Headdress’ – an update 2018,” mexicolore.co.uk and Jonathan, “Headdress of Motecuhzoma II,” worldhistory.org
14. Ibid
15. Dr. Naraelle Hohensee, “Aztec Feathered Headdress: Backstory,” khanacademy.org
16. Aguilar-Moreno, Handbook to Life in the Aztec World, 212
17. Walter Baumgartner, “The Aztec Feather Shield in Vienna: Problems of Conservation,” journals.openedition.org
18. “Featherwork Shield,” mexicolore.co.uk
19. Baumgartner, “The Aztec Feather Shield in Vienna: Problems of Conservation,” journals.openedition.org
20. Ibid
21. Aguilar-Moreno, Handbook to Life in the Aztec World, 211
22. Ibid