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Secondary sourcePaintingbefore 1879

Portrait of Moctezuma Xocoyotzin, Steel Engraving Before 1879

before 1879

A 19th-century engraved portrait of Moctezuma II from a legal document supporting a pension claim by his descendant's heir.

A later imagined portrait of Moctezuma II used to support a descendant's legal pension claim.

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Steel engraving portrait of a man wearing an ornate crown with a tall white feather plume, a jeweled collar, a patterned cape, and a belt with jewels. He holds a scepter in one hand and rests the other on his chest. Caption below reads Moctezuma Xocoyotzin, Emperador de Mexico.
Unknown artist, Portrait of Moctezuma Xocoyotzin, steel engraving, before 1879.

About this source

What it is

This is a steel engraving made before 1879 by an unknown artist, from a document supporting the pension claim of José María Lizaula, an heir of Moctezuma, dated 1531–1885. It shows a man wearing an ornate crown with a tall white feather plume, a jeweled collar, a patterned cape, and a belt with jewels, holding a scepter, captioned 'Moctezuma Xocoyotzin, Emperador de Mexico'.

Why it matters

This engraving was made centuries after Moctezuma's death, for use in a legal document about inheritance claims by his descendants. It shows how Moctezuma's image and legacy continued to matter long after his death, connected to questions of family inheritance and legal recognition.

Look closer

  • Why might a legal document about a pension claim include a portrait of Moctezuma?
  • What does the ornate crown, scepter, and cape suggest the artist wanted viewers to think about Moctezuma's status?
  • Since this was made long after Moctezuma's death, what could it accurately tell us, and what might be imagined?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Montezuma II on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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A painted page from a colonial Mexican manuscript with a blue-green border column of glyphs on the left. Rows of hilltop place-sign glyphs with Nahuatl labels and small pictorial symbols such as a seated figure, a bird, a shield with arrows, and plants, arranged on pale paper with a footer of writing at the bottom.Document

Secondary source

Codex Mendoza, Folio 15v

Unknown author · 16th century

Black-and-white lithograph titled 'Prision de Motezuma' showing Spanish armored soldiers with helmets and halberds on the left facing a group of Aztec-style figures in feathered headdresses on the right, including a central man in a feathered crown and cloak. A large draped canopy and stone columns frame the scene; a shield lies in the lower right. Printed credits read 'J. Serra lit.', 'Lit. Vidal, Olmo 29' and 'Riera, Editor Barcelona'.Painting

Secondary source

Prisión del emperador Moctezuma

Rafael del Castillo de la Cuesta · 1880

Open bound manuscript on a green cloth, showing two pages of handwritten text in columns with small painted illustrations of fish, a shell, a crab, and shrimp. Page headed 'Libro undecimo'.Book

Secondary source

Florentine Codex

Bernardino de Sahagún with Nahua collaborators · 1569

Painting showing Hernán Cortés seizing Moctezuma, a later imagined depiction of the event.Painting

Secondary source

Hernán Cortés takes Moctezuma prisoner

Louis Auguste Turgis · 1895

Woodcut title page of a 1522 Spanish printed letter. A seated, crowned figure holds a scepter in an arched room with checkered floor, flanked by a city scene and a landscape. Below is black-letter Spanish text beginning 'Carta de relación enviada a su S. majestad del emperador nuestro señor por el capitán general de la nueva España, llamado Fernando Cortés', with a handwritten signature at the bottom.Letter

Primary source

Second Letter to Charles V

Hernán Cortés · 1520 (printed 1522)

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