Xicotencatl

Mexico City: Diaz de Leon y White, 1870. Primitivo Miranda. Tinted lithograph. Image measures 14 1/2" x 10 1/2". Scattered foxing at margins, minor offsetting from title page, and some loss to right margin, not affecting the image.<br/> <br/> This striking print depicts Xicohtencatl II, or Xicohtencatl the Younger, being hanged by Spanish forces. A Tlaxacallan prince and warleader, he led the Tlaxacaltecs against the Aztecs, allying with the Spaniards in hopes of conquering Tenochtitlan. During the final siege of Tenochtitlan, Xicohtencatl allegedly attempted to flee back to Tlaxacala. He was accused of treason and Cortes ordered for him to be hanged. In the text, Riva Palacio describes the scene as depicted in the print: "The pale and melancholic light of the moon that was hidden in the horizon, shimmering on the calm surface of the lagoon, illuminated a picture of death. The leader of Tlaxcala, the hero of the independence of that Republic, expired suspended from a gallows, at the foot of which the soldiers of Cortes contemplated him with admiration. In the distance, some Tlaxcalans fled in terror, because that was the scaffold of the freedom of a nation." <br> <br> Print made by Mexican lithographer Santiago Hernandez, after artwork by Primitivo Miranda, Mexican sculptor and neoclassical painter. Published in "El Libro Rojo: 1520-1867", by Riva Palacio and Manuel Payno, an illustrated history of civil violence and suffering in Mexico spanning the Spanish Conquest, the Inquisition, up to the French Intervention. The plates include images of plague, torture, and murder, depicting various political and religious martyrs throughout Mexico's early history. <br> <br> Vicente Riva Palacio (1832-1896) was a lawyer and writer, and the grandson of Vicente Guerrero, revolutionary general and 2nd president of Mexico. Manuel Payno (1810-1894) was a Mexican writer, journalist, politician and diplomat. Both men were liberal intellectuals, and this book sought to commemorate the martyrs and oppressed who shed blood for the nation. The work of both authors continue to be influential to Mexican literature, art, and national identity.<br/> <br/>