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Primary sourcePainting1585

Tovar Codex Image of Moctezuma II

Juan de Tovar · 1585

A 1585 manuscript painting from the Tovar Codex shows Moctezuma II, the last Aztec emperor, standing with royal symbols of his rule.

Portrays Moctezuma II as the ninth and last independent Aztec emperor, shown with the regalia of his rule.

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Painted manuscript page showing a standing man with a beard and a blue-gray headdress with red ribbon, holding a gold-shafted spear and wearing a red-and-white patterned cape and a green feather plume. A woven throne stands to the left. Handwritten Spanish label reads Moteuczuma 2o deste nombre ultimo Rey de los Mexicanos.
Juan de Tovar, Tovar Codex, Moctezuma II, 1585.

About this source

What it is

This watercolor illustration comes from the Tovar Codex, attributed to the Jesuit Juan de Tovar and dated 1585. It shows Moctezuma II standing on a reed mat beside a basketwork throne, holding a spear or scepter, bearded, wearing a feathered epaulette, with a crown beside him.

Why it matters

Made decades after Moctezuma's reign by a Jesuit working with Indigenous sources and traditions, the codex preserves Aztec history and ceremony for a Spanish colonial audience. The image's crown and regalia mark Moctezuma's sovereignty as the ninth Aztec emperor before his surrender to the Spanish in 1520.

Look closer

  • What objects in the image show that this man is a powerful ruler?
  • Why might a Jesuit author in colonial Mexico want to record Aztec history and rulers like this?
  • What might be missing or changed from how Aztecs themselves would have shown Moctezuma before the conquest?

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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