Encounter of Hernando Cortes and Moctezuma
- unknown artist
- Giulio Ferrario, Italian, 1767-1847
- Gallo Gallina, Italian, 1778-1837
- Born: Cremona, Italy
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.
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
- “Age of Armor” — Denver Art Museum, 5/15/2022 – 9/5/2022