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Secondary sourcePainting1916

The Great Montezuma

1916

A 1916 engraved illustration depicting Montezuma in an ornate crown and cloak.

A later imagined portrait of Moctezuma, created long after his death, showing how he was remembered.

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Black and white engraved illustration of a man wearing an ornate crown with a large feather plume, a richly decorated cloak with fur trim and jeweled ornaments, holding a staff in one hand and resting the other on his chest.
The Great Montezuma, illustration, 1916.

About this source

What it is

This is a black-and-white engraving from 1916 titled The Great Montezuma, showing a man in an elaborate feathered crown and jeweled cloak, holding a staff.

Why it matters

Made centuries after Moctezuma's death, this image is part of a long tradition of European and American artists imagining the Aztec emperor's appearance and splendor, often based more on stereotype than fact.

Look closer

  • What clues suggest this is a later, imagined portrait rather than a firsthand image?
  • How does the costume try to convey royalty and power?
  • Why might this image have been made in 1916, long after Moctezuma's rule?

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

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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

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Florentine Codex

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

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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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