Encounter of Hernando Cortes and Moctezuma

Encounter of Hernando Cortes and Moctezuma

1815-1835
Artist
unknown artist
Author
Giulio Ferrario, Italian, 1767-1847
Engraver
Gallo Gallina, Italian, 1778-1837
Born: Cremona, Italy
Locale
Milan, Italy
Country
Italy
Object
engraving
Medium
Hand colored engraving on paper
Accession Number
2000.353
Credit Line
Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer

Gallo Gallina, Encounter of Hernando Cortes and Moctezuma, 1815-1835. Hand-colored engraving on paper; 6½ × 5½ in. Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer, 2000.353.

Dimensions
image height: 6.5 in, 16.5100 cm; image width: 5.5 in, 13.9700 cm; sheet height: 14 3/4 in, 37.465 cm; sheet width: 10 in, 25.4 cm; mat height: 20 in, 50.8 cm; mat width: 16 in, 40.64 cm
Inscription
top right in graphite: Mex, painted top center image 16, top right image 63, bottom right image G. Gallina, f.
Department
Mayer Center, Latin American Art
Collection
Latin American Art

This early-1800s print by the Italian engraver Gallo Gallina shows the meeting of Hernando Cortés and the Mexica (Aztec) leader (tlatoani) Moctezuma II. Gallina drew from existing images of the Mexica leader, most notably Suor Isabella Piccini’s engraved portrait in Antonio de Solís’s Historia de la conquista de México (History of the Conquest of Mexico, 1684). Gallina repeated much of Piccini’s costume, showing the Mexica leader with a feather-trimmed cape, loincloth, and feather shield. The depiction of Cortés also owes something to Piccini’s bust-length portrait of the conquistador in full armor, but Gallina adds a cape and a plumed helmet.

This image was produced for Giulio Ferrario’s 23-volume Il costume antico e moderno (Ancient and Modern Costume, 1815–35), published in Italian and French editions.

– Kathryn Santner, Frederick and Jan Mayer Fellow of Spanish Colonial Art, 2022

Known Provenance
Gifted 2000 by Frederick and Jan Mayer to the Denver Art Museum. Provenance research is on-going at the Denver Art Museum. Please e-mail provenance@denverartmuseum.org, if you have questions, or if you have additional information to share with us.
Exhibition History
  • “Age of Armor” — Denver Art Museum, 5/15/2022 – 9/5/2022