The Battle of Otumba

What it is

This is an oil on canvas painting made in the second half of the seventeenth century. Its author is unknown. It shows a battle on a grassy plain, with armored Spanish horsemen and soldiers fighting large numbers of Indigenous warriors. A large red banner stands at the left, and bodies lie on the ground in the foreground. The collection record dates the event to 7 July 1520.

Why it matters

The painting shows the fighting at Otumba during the flight from Tenochtitlan. The collection record says the encounter was with Cuitláhuac, the new Mexica leader and brother of Moctezuma. Painted about a century and a half after the battle, it is an imagined view of events, not an eyewitness record, so it tells us more about how later artists remembered the conquest.

Look closer

• Which side does the painting show as larger, and how does that choice affect the story it tells?
• Why might a painter from a later century choose to show this battle?
• What does the painting leave out about the reasons for the fighting?