Este texto reúne datos muy interesantes fruto de una entrevista de carácter personal que sostuve con João Neto, director del Museo de la Farmacia de Lisboa, en Portugal, el 8 de junio de 2017, quién me explicó el origen de lo que en México conocemos bajo el nombre de "ojos de boticario". Estos tienen como antecedentes a los llamados “globos de mostrador” (Show globes), piezas muy relacionados al mundo de los alquimistas ingleses quienes practicaron la medicina química desde el siglo XVI. En esta época, los alquimistas, o "quimistas", ejercían su profesión bajo un aura de misterio y magia pues la gente no diferenciaba entonces su forma de hacer medicina en comparación con los boticarios (apothecaries) quiénes solo trabajaban con productos naturales. La medicina química se consolidó hasta el siglo XVIII en Gran Bretaña tras una cruenta guerra civil entre boticarios y químicos que terminó a finales del siglo XVII. Durante este período los químicos tuvieron que ser muy discretos en cuanto a su práctica pues podían ser acusados de brujería, y es así como los “globos de mostrador” se convirtieron en un símbolo de ésta, ya que eran colocados en los aparadores de las boticas de quienes secretamente ejercían la medicina química. Este símbolo los diferenciaba también de los boticarios, quienes se distinguían bajo el “mortero con mano”. Cómo sabemos, la alquimia se representa desde tiempos antiguos con los cuatro elementos: la tierra, el fuego, el aire y el agua, es por esto que los “globo de mostrador” se conformaban originalmente de 4 esferas de vidrio separadas, que embonan entre si construyendo una torre. La primera esfera presenta una base de cristal y un cuello, mientras que las esferas subsecuentes van reduciendo en volumen y presentan cuello en la parte superior y un tapón (stopper) en la parte inferior el cual embona en el cuello del globo que lo precede. La cuarta pieza es el tapón en vidrio solido transparente con forma de gota que corona la torre. Se rellenaban con líquidos de colores que se hacían con recetas y mezclas químicas, el resultado era muy llamativo, y aparentaba ser un elemento meramente decorativo, pero en realidad anunciaban por medio de su código cromático que en el establecimiento dónde se apreciaban se producían medicamentos químicos. El código ocupaba las cuatro piezas de cristal, ya que cada color representaba un elemento determinado: el rojo carmesí=fuego, el amarillo=tierra, el transparente=aire y el azul=agua.
En el artículo "Mysterious Show Globes of the Apothecary", se describe como los “globos de mostrador” fueron introducidos en los países bajo la influencia británica, como Estados Unidos, Canadá, Australia y Nueva Zelanda y posteriormente pasaron al resto del mundo. También explica que era común verlos incluidos en los catálogos de mercancía americana, por ejemplo, el de la compañía Bullock & Crenshaw que presentó la primera colección extensa de ilustraciones de equipo de farmacia en la década de 1850 y ya para 1890 eran producidos y vendidos por varios fabricantes estadounidenses, entre ellos Whitall-Tatum Company, quienes lanzaron nuevas propuestas variando la forma, las decoraciones, el número de elementos y hasta el relleno interior mediante la incorporación de iluminación de gas o aceite desde el interior, sirviendo como precursores del letrero de luz neón.
Durante la segunda mitad el s. XX las piezas d vidrio cobraron auge dentro de la decoración de las casas modernas mexicanas gracias a la influencia y gusto estético del arquitecto Luis Barragán Morfín y del pintor “Chucho” Reyes Ferreira. Con Chucho Reyes el código cromático adoptó un tono nacionalista al rellenarlas con líquido color rosa mexicano y con el arquitecto, un tono purista pues rellenaba con agua el contenedor hasta obtener una imagen invertida en el globo. El diseño de las piezas de vidrio fabricadas en México fue variando en número de elementos y presentación, aquí se soplaron dentro de moldes ópticos, y se hicieron con vidrio de color, así podían prescindir de llevar líquido al interior e incluso se hacían con la reconocida técnica local del burbujeado, pero siempre se mantuvo constante la forma esférica de los globos y de ahí el nombre que se les dio: "Ojos de boticario".  -(arriba) Ojo de boticario de un solo elemento con vista al jardín desde el comedor de Luis Barragán. Fotografías de José Andrés Aguilar Vela, Casa Museo Luis Barragán. Marzo 2015. |
 |  |
Fig. 2. Valeria Florescano, Antropomorphization of a venetian cup into a Tehuana goblet. Fig. 3. Charles B. Waite photo of a Tehuana woman, circa 1896. Tehuana goblet Photo © lente 3030.
This translation of appearances -where reflection becomes luminosity, but also becomes beauty – is explored in the Tehuana goblet installation. There, I wanted to show the subtle relationship between the traditional garment of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region and a Venetian crystal chalice made in the style known as “Verre à la façon de Venise”.
By altering each goblets into an anthropomorphic representation of the mestizo woman, the “Tehuana”. After each goblet is finished to all its detail, and while the piece is still hot at the gaffers bench, a final gesture is made; when I quickly bend the foot to a 90 degree angle on the side, until both ends of the “avolio” meet, this allows the foot to face sideways, thus reversing its standing point. The foot then resembles the headdress of the Zapotec women called the "bida:niró", which is translated to "Resplandor" in Spanish or “Gleam” in English. A spectacular confection of starched plated lace that frames the face of the woman like an aureole. This crossroads between east and west, show deep cultural roots and complexities, and are expressed in the richness and sophistication of the women´s dress through the presence of the embroidered velvets and starched lace brocades that conform the headdress, blouse (huipil), skirt, underskirt and apron.
Connected with the geography of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, these proud women, in their traditional garment have inspired many artists such as Frida Kahlo and Sergei Eisenstein among others.
By altering each goblets into an anthropomorphic representation of the mestizo woman, the “Tehuana”. After each goblet is finished to all its detail, and while the piece is still hot at the gaffers bench, a final gesture is made; when I quickly bend the foot to a 90 degree angle on the side, until both ends of the “avolio” meet, this allows the foot to face sideways, thus reversing its standing point. The foot then resembles the headdress of the Zapotec women called the "bida:niró", which is translated to "Resplandor" in Spanish or “Gleam” in English. A spectacular confection of starched plated lace that frames the face of the woman like an aureole. This crossroads between east and west, show deep cultural roots and complexities, and are expressed in the richness and sophistication of the women´s dress through the presence of the embroidered velvets and starched lace brocades that conform the headdress, blouse (huipil), skirt, underskirt and apron.
Connected with the geography of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, these proud women, in their traditional garment have inspired many artists such as Frida Kahlo and Sergei Eisenstein among others.
 |  |
 |  |
Fig. 4. Miguel Covarrubias. a selection of designs for the huipil blouse from the book "México South". Fig. 5. and Fig. 6. Details of Tehuana goblets photo© lente 3030. Fig.7. Some Textures of vetro a filigrana techniques, and its categories: vetro a fili ( filaments), vetro a retorti (twisted filaments), and vetro a reticello (filaments forming a net).
For the installation a series of glass goblets where blown, following traditional Venetian glass techniques and using canework patterns like "zanfirico", "reticello", or "latticino", this glass patterns ressemble the textile lacework.
The goblets, become Tehuanas by placing them in an upside down position. This invertion changes the order of its components, but not its material language, therefore the cup becomes the base and ressembless the skirt. The stem, with its “avolio” [2] and node [3] decorations function as usual, holding up what used to be the foot, but now this becomes the ”Gleam” or headress of the Tehuana, an element that reveals the concentric movement in the filligree pattern and the reflection of light.
In each goblet, I explored the idea of beauty, feminine seduction and diversity. I was also interested in highlighting the sensuous quality of the functional and sophisticated handmade objects, that is why every piece is loaded with information on its own history and use, creating a network of meanings and particularities but also speaking a common language that evolves around ritual and universal beauty.
I was then able to symbolically follow the commercial trade route of lace and sumptuary glass from Renaissance Venice to Mexico, specifically to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Oaxaca. Beginning with the fact that the strenght of the textile commerce in Venice during the Renaisance followed a reinterpretation in new techniques of glassmaking during the sixteenth-century in Venice because of the imitation of the lace frills with the invention of the filligrana techniques in Murano, (patented by Filippo and Bernardo Catani in 1527). Signaling both as common grounds between the isthmus and the island, where commercial and cultural exchanged symbols melted. and exemplifying the crossroads between East and West as well as the interlocking paths between the colonized and the colonizers.
It is impossible to verify that Venetian textile trade influenced the invention of glass filigree; or even chart a trade route of Venetian glass into the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. But we can draw parables between these two geographies. The Glass chalices exemplify in the form of seduction and beauty , where usage and custom celebrate identity within the highest degree of sophistication.
Underlining the sense that dressing in costume together with rite, reifies through practice, the Tehuana Goblet presents displacements, translations and migrations of objects in new orders.
The goblets, become Tehuanas by placing them in an upside down position. This invertion changes the order of its components, but not its material language, therefore the cup becomes the base and ressembless the skirt. The stem, with its “avolio” [2] and node [3] decorations function as usual, holding up what used to be the foot, but now this becomes the ”Gleam” or headress of the Tehuana, an element that reveals the concentric movement in the filligree pattern and the reflection of light.
In each goblet, I explored the idea of beauty, feminine seduction and diversity. I was also interested in highlighting the sensuous quality of the functional and sophisticated handmade objects, that is why every piece is loaded with information on its own history and use, creating a network of meanings and particularities but also speaking a common language that evolves around ritual and universal beauty.
I was then able to symbolically follow the commercial trade route of lace and sumptuary glass from Renaissance Venice to Mexico, specifically to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Oaxaca. Beginning with the fact that the strenght of the textile commerce in Venice during the Renaisance followed a reinterpretation in new techniques of glassmaking during the sixteenth-century in Venice because of the imitation of the lace frills with the invention of the filligrana techniques in Murano, (patented by Filippo and Bernardo Catani in 1527). Signaling both as common grounds between the isthmus and the island, where commercial and cultural exchanged symbols melted. and exemplifying the crossroads between East and West as well as the interlocking paths between the colonized and the colonizers.
It is impossible to verify that Venetian textile trade influenced the invention of glass filigree; or even chart a trade route of Venetian glass into the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. But we can draw parables between these two geographies. The Glass chalices exemplify in the form of seduction and beauty , where usage and custom celebrate identity within the highest degree of sophistication.
Underlining the sense that dressing in costume together with rite, reifies through practice, the Tehuana Goblet presents displacements, translations and migrations of objects in new orders.
Fig. 8. Detail of Tehuana goblet by Valeria Florescano photo© lente 3030.
This new objects relocate themselves against strictly separatist notions. Covering both territories; Venice and Juchitán, and placing together blown glass with the textile garment into a road of seduction.
II . Glass Huipiles
Claudio Linati, the italian artist who introduced lithography in México, must have fell in love with the women of the Isthmus. His Tehuana with a tight enredo (a kind of skirt consisting on a rectangular piece of cloth that wraps around the hips) and transparent huipil revealing her pretty breasts, broke the puritanical austerity of a long series of civil and military garments that Linati engraved in the second decade of the XIX century. The lace frills that frame the face of the young isthmus girl makes her nudity more notorious, because it is unexpected. After drawing so many thick layers of cloth skirts from head to toe, the artist delights himself with the light freshness of this vain girl. Upon her shoulders a glass gleam seems to float about.
Perhaps its no coincidence that a man from Italy took such attention to the Tehuana garb. In this installation, Valeria Florescano unveils consonances between the delicate Murano goblets and the diaphanous bidaaniró’, the white gala head dress of the zapotec woman.
Glass filigree, and starched lace thread; hand blown goblets at the bright crimson furnace, pleated hems with a very hot iron.
But pointing out this obvious parallels does not make justice to the work of Valeria. Her curiosity leads us to subtle discoveries related to the form and texture of seduction. Linati ´s Tehuana flirts amongst the goblets and the curling strands of glass remain awaiting the brush of her tanned skin.
Alejandro de Ávila B. Curator. Museum of Textile, Oaxaca.
II . Glass Huipiles
Claudio Linati, the italian artist who introduced lithography in México, must have fell in love with the women of the Isthmus. His Tehuana with a tight enredo (a kind of skirt consisting on a rectangular piece of cloth that wraps around the hips) and transparent huipil revealing her pretty breasts, broke the puritanical austerity of a long series of civil and military garments that Linati engraved in the second decade of the XIX century. The lace frills that frame the face of the young isthmus girl makes her nudity more notorious, because it is unexpected. After drawing so many thick layers of cloth skirts from head to toe, the artist delights himself with the light freshness of this vain girl. Upon her shoulders a glass gleam seems to float about.
Perhaps its no coincidence that a man from Italy took such attention to the Tehuana garb. In this installation, Valeria Florescano unveils consonances between the delicate Murano goblets and the diaphanous bidaaniró’, the white gala head dress of the zapotec woman.
Glass filigree, and starched lace thread; hand blown goblets at the bright crimson furnace, pleated hems with a very hot iron.
But pointing out this obvious parallels does not make justice to the work of Valeria. Her curiosity leads us to subtle discoveries related to the form and texture of seduction. Linati ´s Tehuana flirts amongst the goblets and the curling strands of glass remain awaiting the brush of her tanned skin.
Alejandro de Ávila B. Curator. Museum of Textile, Oaxaca.
Fig. 9. Detail of Tehuana goblet photo© lente 3030.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful for the assistance I have had from many people who have been walking alongside this process during its different stages, but mostly with kindness and support for my work. Thank you; friends, collaborators and collectors:
Treg Silkwood, Candance Martin, Mónica Bárcena, Javier Sánchez Carral, Ana Paula Fuentes, Valeria Vallarta Siemelinck, Johanna Angel Reyes, David Israel Perez Aznar, Alfredo López Austin, Alejandro de Ávila, Olga Margarita Dávila, Iris Sosa, Manuel Rocha Iturbide, Jason Pohl, Angel Miquel, Catarina Carvalho, Teresa Almeida, and Krzysiek Kucharczyk.
I’m also extremely thankful for having great people collaborating at my “Fuego conJuego” studio: Ena Lehman, Daniela Suchil and Alfonso Chagoya, as well as my work companions from “Arta Cerámica”, you all make studio work a collaborative space full of respect, motivation and playfulness: Gloria Rubio, Ana Gómez, Marta Ruiz and Fabricio Tomé. I also want to thank other crafts people and artists, with whom I worked through this process: Rolando Regino Porrás, his wife Lorena Lávida and Javier Pantaleón. Last, but not least, I want to thank all of BWA Gallery staff in Wroclaw, Poland, specially Tomek Cugier and Dominika Drozdowska, as well as Alejandra Barajas at the Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores (SRE) in México City.
Finally I want to thank my friends who are besides me no matter what and always inspire me with their own doings: Angélica Moreno, Sarah Gilbert, Graciela Iturbide, Ryan Staub, Nicola López, Rocío Mireles, Remigio Mestas and Tessy Ades,Thank you! Also my very talented and supporting family who encourages me every day: I couldn´t have done this without your love and presence: Enrique Florescano, Alejandra Moreno Toscano, Carmen Moreno Toscano and my daughter Camila.
Valeria Florescano , Mexico City, November 2015.
I am grateful for the assistance I have had from many people who have been walking alongside this process during its different stages, but mostly with kindness and support for my work. Thank you; friends, collaborators and collectors:
Treg Silkwood, Candance Martin, Mónica Bárcena, Javier Sánchez Carral, Ana Paula Fuentes, Valeria Vallarta Siemelinck, Johanna Angel Reyes, David Israel Perez Aznar, Alfredo López Austin, Alejandro de Ávila, Olga Margarita Dávila, Iris Sosa, Manuel Rocha Iturbide, Jason Pohl, Angel Miquel, Catarina Carvalho, Teresa Almeida, and Krzysiek Kucharczyk.
I’m also extremely thankful for having great people collaborating at my “Fuego conJuego” studio: Ena Lehman, Daniela Suchil and Alfonso Chagoya, as well as my work companions from “Arta Cerámica”, you all make studio work a collaborative space full of respect, motivation and playfulness: Gloria Rubio, Ana Gómez, Marta Ruiz and Fabricio Tomé. I also want to thank other crafts people and artists, with whom I worked through this process: Rolando Regino Porrás, his wife Lorena Lávida and Javier Pantaleón. Last, but not least, I want to thank all of BWA Gallery staff in Wroclaw, Poland, specially Tomek Cugier and Dominika Drozdowska, as well as Alejandra Barajas at the Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores (SRE) in México City.
Finally I want to thank my friends who are besides me no matter what and always inspire me with their own doings: Angélica Moreno, Sarah Gilbert, Graciela Iturbide, Ryan Staub, Nicola López, Rocío Mireles, Remigio Mestas and Tessy Ades,Thank you! Also my very talented and supporting family who encourages me every day: I couldn´t have done this without your love and presence: Enrique Florescano, Alejandra Moreno Toscano, Carmen Moreno Toscano and my daughter Camila.
Valeria Florescano , Mexico City, November 2015.
[Foot Notes]
[1] Hesterberg, Annegret, “Presencia compartida - Una segunda piel” en Artes de México, no.49 (“La Tehuana”), México, 2000, p.41
[2] Avolio: (Italian) A small quantity of glass that joins the stem and the foot of goblets and similar forms.
[3] Node: (Latin nodus, ‘knot’) is either a connection point or a redistribution point.
One European, the other Aztec. These pieces are united through Albrecht Dürer, when he viewed the exhibition in Brussels “The objects brought to the king from the new land of gold”, sponsored by Charles V. of Spain I. of Germany. Dürer wrote with great admiration about this objects, in an entry on his travel diary the 27 of august, 1520, This is one of the few examples of European recognition of the Aztec treasures from an artistic perspective during the time.
“Wing of a Roller” by Albrecht Dürer. (1512) Watercolor and gouache on vellum. 20 x 20 cm. Graphische Sammlung, Vienna. B.“Penacho” of the ancient Mexico. (ca.1545) Width 175 cm. Height 116 cm. (col. Ambras). Photo. 2010. Art History Museum, Vienna.
I have been working on a series of pieces with a concern in contemporary practices with glass and with the material history in México. This has inspired me to explore about the significance of bright shimmering objects and its use in prehispanic times. What attracts me of this approach to materials was, how all objects made, mapped a conceptual and material landscape, unique to its geography and cultural environment.
In order to have a broader, inclusive and contemporary view of glass locally (and globally), it is imperative to acknowledge that most of our ideas of value still derive from an established “colonial perspective”. Today, with recent archeological discoveries and most significantly with the development of material culture and postcolonial studies, we are capable of understanding a suppressed history of materials that was harder to discern before. In order to fathom this, we have to go way back to the shock of the conquest of the Americas, where great cultures where subverted, pushed aside and imposed into a new set of political and economic interests that transformed everything into stories of gold. The prevailing idea that indigenous people exchanged glass for gold, rested in a western optic that recorded this cultures along with their material values, in a condescending way.
In order to have a broader, inclusive and contemporary view of glass locally (and globally), it is imperative to acknowledge that most of our ideas of value still derive from an established “colonial perspective”. Today, with recent archeological discoveries and most significantly with the development of material culture and postcolonial studies, we are capable of understanding a suppressed history of materials that was harder to discern before. In order to fathom this, we have to go way back to the shock of the conquest of the Americas, where great cultures where subverted, pushed aside and imposed into a new set of political and economic interests that transformed everything into stories of gold. The prevailing idea that indigenous people exchanged glass for gold, rested in a western optic that recorded this cultures along with their material values, in a condescending way.
This collage made by me, exemplifies the idea of the use of materials for the sake of movement and reflection of light. This are the eyes section of masks found in underworld, they where offerings displaying a range of colors and materials that respond to a sum of symbolisms still far from being understood, yet the eyes respond clearly to light, becoming alive with movement. In other cases we see a spiral drawn in the sclerotic symbolizing the same idea.
We have to subvert again this idea of “naivetés” into the acknowledgement of an inclusive culture that respects “all things diverse”. For the Mexica[1], using a material to imitate or even substitute another was unconceivable because -each material accounts for its unique characteristics-. This way of thinking was immensely inclusive, and cherished diversity as a greater value. Through the study of Amerindian cultures, scholars like Nicholas J. Saunders[2] in Britain, along with many others, have uncovered how indigenous cultures conceived their material worlds in a wider context. Acknowledging an understanding of a multisensory place where objects dwell and move comfortably across space and through time, thus, integrating completely the physical and the spiritual aspects of life.
Amerindian craftsmen polished and devastated natural glasses. The interest in the material grew from their interest in brilliance, shimmer and from the belief that it represented the accumulation of creative powers that animated and regulated the universe.
They believed in the spiritual and creative power of light and how it embodied their society’s mythic identity.
Amerindian craftsmen polished and devastated natural glasses. The interest in the material grew from their interest in brilliance, shimmer and from the belief that it represented the accumulation of creative powers that animated and regulated the universe.
They believed in the spiritual and creative power of light and how it embodied their society’s mythic identity.
(Fig. 1.) (Fig. 2) Their raw material was mined from the earth and shaped by people, and, if we believe Ethno historical sources, this objects appear to give their owner access to the intangible world of reflections, where souls, spirits, and the immanent forces of the cosmos dwell (Baquedano, 2014, pp.6.).
Today it is hard to understand the difference between “ornament”, and embellishment in comparison with “emblazonment” which is the application of an emblem. Our ancient world, had a very sophisticated language of elements and materials that made up a garment, a pyramid, or a ritual object, this included origin, attributes, form, color and meaning in ritual, all adding up new layers of context.
Materiality was “invested” with qualities abstracted from a cultural appraisal of the natural world. Their material culture objectified these qualities while combining them into something different, a sum of all. Every material accumulated qualities to conform a unique meaning.
That is why there was a wide variety of shinny and shimmering materials, metals and alloys where favored variously as they served as conveyors of sacred brilliance, opposed to the European´s interests where only gold, silver, pearls, and emeralds had any real (commercial) value.
Materiality was “invested” with qualities abstracted from a cultural appraisal of the natural world. Their material culture objectified these qualities while combining them into something different, a sum of all. Every material accumulated qualities to conform a unique meaning.
That is why there was a wide variety of shinny and shimmering materials, metals and alloys where favored variously as they served as conveyors of sacred brilliance, opposed to the European´s interests where only gold, silver, pearls, and emeralds had any real (commercial) value.
(Fig.3.) Florentine Codex. Book 11. Sahagún makes constant reference to the translucence, preciousness, iridescent, colors, and light-giving qualities of minerals, many of which appear also as items of elite tribute in the Aztec. Book 11. On precious stones, fol. 356. This emerald is called “quetzal title” where “quetzalli” means green feather and “ytztli” means polished, without stains. One can see how a drawn description equals this idea of a sum of values: iridescence + transparency + strong quality of color (tone). In the bottom we see a shimmering stone. (Fig. 4.) This image is related to the forms in which you find precious stones in nature. The curved “S” mark across the stone, represents for Mesoamerican expert, Dr. Alfredo López Austin “a twist” (torcedura) which the stone suffers when reaching its boiling point.
As Nicholas J. Saunders mentions:" the presence and use of this materials evokes an act of transformative creation by implying the trapping and converting of luminosity, in other words: recycling—it also meant fertilizing the energy of light into brilliant solid forms via technological choices whose efficacy stemmed from a synergy of myth, ritual knowledge, and individual technical skill” [3].
The most appreciated characteristic of glassy objects was its reflection and the movement provoked by its glare. But other qualities, like those associated with the “Smoking Mirror,” where very much appreciated. Black mirrors made out of highly polished obsidian (volcanic glass) had a dark ephemeral reflection; these reflective devices were powerfully ambiguous because they shone with a “dark light.” They were connected with Tezcatlipoca “Lord of the Smoking Mirror”, one of the most intriguing and complex deities of the Mesoamerican world, associated with rulers, warriors, tricksters and sorcerers. The obsidian ( ytztli ), was considered a manifestation of Tezcatlipoca because of its semantic proximity, both where associated by materiality / invisibility and with its omniscience / omnipresence-[4]
The British Museum has one of this “Smoking Mirrors”, part of Dr. John Dee collection. Dr. Dee was an Elizabethan mathematician, astrologer and magician who had a deep interest in optics, “glasses” and in all the occult; he used this piece as a ‘shrew-stone’, a tool for his occult research.
In Aztec culture, iridescence was also considered a part of the sensory experience, and when expressed in movement it could speak more than objects themselves. This civilization left countless of objects that dialogued with space and light around them and in turn established a link with the Cosmos. Certainly not different from the way we use glass as an artistic medium today, these objects were also present in rites and ceremonies of daily life, therefore, they not only referred to creation, consumption and use, but also to a sense, an idea of continuous transformation and perception by those who watched or used them.
<<The subjacent similarities between iridescence, light and reflection is expressed in materials like feather works, polished wood, burnished pottery, greenstones, obsidian, rock crystal, gemstones and a wide variety of shinny minerals and metals, also meteorological phenomenon, fire, water, natural mica[5], hematite, pearl of shell, pyrite, turquoise, jade, seeds, blood and semen>> [6], this last three materials where also symbols of fertilization and therefore of recycling.
The most appreciated characteristic of glassy objects was its reflection and the movement provoked by its glare. But other qualities, like those associated with the “Smoking Mirror,” where very much appreciated. Black mirrors made out of highly polished obsidian (volcanic glass) had a dark ephemeral reflection; these reflective devices were powerfully ambiguous because they shone with a “dark light.” They were connected with Tezcatlipoca “Lord of the Smoking Mirror”, one of the most intriguing and complex deities of the Mesoamerican world, associated with rulers, warriors, tricksters and sorcerers. The obsidian ( ytztli ), was considered a manifestation of Tezcatlipoca because of its semantic proximity, both where associated by materiality / invisibility and with its omniscience / omnipresence-[4]
The British Museum has one of this “Smoking Mirrors”, part of Dr. John Dee collection. Dr. Dee was an Elizabethan mathematician, astrologer and magician who had a deep interest in optics, “glasses” and in all the occult; he used this piece as a ‘shrew-stone’, a tool for his occult research.
In Aztec culture, iridescence was also considered a part of the sensory experience, and when expressed in movement it could speak more than objects themselves. This civilization left countless of objects that dialogued with space and light around them and in turn established a link with the Cosmos. Certainly not different from the way we use glass as an artistic medium today, these objects were also present in rites and ceremonies of daily life, therefore, they not only referred to creation, consumption and use, but also to a sense, an idea of continuous transformation and perception by those who watched or used them.
<<The subjacent similarities between iridescence, light and reflection is expressed in materials like feather works, polished wood, burnished pottery, greenstones, obsidian, rock crystal, gemstones and a wide variety of shinny minerals and metals, also meteorological phenomenon, fire, water, natural mica[5], hematite, pearl of shell, pyrite, turquoise, jade, seeds, blood and semen>> [6], this last three materials where also symbols of fertilization and therefore of recycling.
(Fig.5) Florentine Codex. Polishing black obsidian into circular mirrors in the Aztec codex in Fray Bernardino de Sahagún. (Fig.6) A mirror Stone, (“tezcatl”). This black mirror was one of the many Mexica treasures taken to Europe after the conquest of Mexico by Hernán Cortés (1527-1530). (Fig.7) 400 balls of 10 to 20 cms. diam. Made out of a nucleus of compressed soil and covered with pirite dust where found in a south chamber of the tunnel under the temple of Quetzalcoatl in Teohtihuacán, México. Hematite, pirite and magnetite dust along with fluid mercury where amongst the bright and shinny materials found in this tunnel.
It is clear that today many of these material objects have lost their connection with site specificity, cause and effect, and with ritual and movement in use. The same has happened to the work with craft today. We forgot how we used to “use and understand materiality”. We have let ecosystems die, and species disappear, substituting or forget them. With glass, we may be captivated by the thought of creating new techniques of working with it, but we seem to have lost interest in its essence and ways of how it was appreciated before through other cultures and across time.
In sum, what has motivated me to write this paper is to place in the table other notions to understand glass and "glassy" objects from a local point of view and to share its value and meaning from another perspective.
....
In sum, what has motivated me to write this paper is to place in the table other notions to understand glass and "glassy" objects from a local point of view and to share its value and meaning from another perspective.
....
[Foot Notes]
[1] Is a Nahuatl word pronounced [Mēxihcah], The Mexica are the Nahua people who founded Tenochtitlan and where rulers of the Valley of Mexico and other territories during the time of the arrival of Hernán Cortés. They are known today as the Aztec Empire.
[2] A British archaeoligist and anthropologist. Professor in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Bristol. Nicholas J. Saunders has investigated and published extensively on material cultures, aesthetics of brilliance, symbolism and colour in the landscapes of Mesoamerica, South America, and the Caribbean.
[3] Nicholas J. Saunders, “Stealers of Light, Traders in Brilliance: Amerindian Metaphysics in the Mirror of Conquest”, 1999: 246.
[4] Tezcatlipoca:Trickster and Supreme Deity. Editor: Elizabeth Baquedano. University of Colorado, Boulder, Texas. 2014 .University Press of Colorado
[5] For the Aztec, mica (metzcujtatl) was excreted by the moon, symbolized cosmic forces, and possessed a soft, buoyant light (Sahagún 1950-1978:Book 11:235).
[6] Nicholas J. Saunders, “Stealers of Light, Traders in Brilliance: Amerindian Metaphysics in the Mirror of Conquest”, Anthropology and Aesthetics, núm. 33, 1998: Published by the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, pp. 225-252.
[1] Is a Nahuatl word pronounced [Mēxihcah], The Mexica are the Nahua people who founded Tenochtitlan and where rulers of the Valley of Mexico and other territories during the time of the arrival of Hernán Cortés. They are known today as the Aztec Empire.
[2] A British archaeoligist and anthropologist. Professor in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Bristol. Nicholas J. Saunders has investigated and published extensively on material cultures, aesthetics of brilliance, symbolism and colour in the landscapes of Mesoamerica, South America, and the Caribbean.
[3] Nicholas J. Saunders, “Stealers of Light, Traders in Brilliance: Amerindian Metaphysics in the Mirror of Conquest”, 1999: 246.
[4] Tezcatlipoca:Trickster and Supreme Deity. Editor: Elizabeth Baquedano. University of Colorado, Boulder, Texas. 2014 .University Press of Colorado
[5] For the Aztec, mica (metzcujtatl) was excreted by the moon, symbolized cosmic forces, and possessed a soft, buoyant light (Sahagún 1950-1978:Book 11:235).
[6] Nicholas J. Saunders, “Stealers of Light, Traders in Brilliance: Amerindian Metaphysics in the Mirror of Conquest”, Anthropology and Aesthetics, núm. 33, 1998: Published by the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, pp. 225-252.
Valeria Florescano
Lives and works in Mexico City.
You can reach her at her studio @ “Fuego conJuego, Juego conFuego” .
Archives
July 2017
February 2017
April 2016
January 2016
RSS Feed
Categories
