70 • The deaTh of azTec TenochTiTLan, The Life of mexico ciTy
or defacement, it is probable that it was buried close to
where it was originally set. 70 Running along the south side
of the palace, from west to east, was the main canal that
ran through the Mexica city, known as the acequia real in
the colonial period. Given the careful placement of Mex-
ica sculpture in other sites in Tenochtitlan, the Teocalli,
with its image of the tamed Chalchiuhtlicue, may have
been meant to work in tandem with the adjacent canal.
If this reconstructed placement near a canal is correct, it
would underscore the meaning of the iconography, which
announces that the foundation was made possible by the
sacrifice and the visual taming of the deity of the lake.
If we conceive of the Teocalli of Sacred Warfare as a
victory monument over water, Moteuczoma II would carry
the same idea into the iconography of his portrait statue.
It was carved on the flanks of the hill of Chalpultepec like
the earlier portrait of his namesake, Moteuczoma I, mark-
ing his relation to that reliable source of freshwater for the
city, upon which the Mexica continued to depend after the
disaster of the Acuecuexco aqueduct. Today, this portrait
survives but in damaged form, cut into the live rock some
110 yards to the north of the water tanks that supplied the
aqueduct system (figure 3.9). 71 A reconstruction by the
art historian Patrick Hajovsky is reproduced in figure 3.10.
To create it, the sculptors did little to smooth the escarp-
ment, working with the irregular contours of the rock face.
Moteuczoma II stands on a low platform, defined by a
strong horizontal step that runs along the bottom of the
work. Within the platform under the portrait on the far
right, the distinctive back legs of a grasshopper are visible,
with their particular back-turned foot also seen in other
renderings of grasshoppers (see figure 2.4), to show that
the figure “stands” upon Chapultepec. Enough of the image
remains in the rock face to allow one to discern the legs of
the almost life-sized ruler, frontal to the viewer, and cos-
tume elements, particularly the ruler’s distinctive staff and
the large plumed headdress that once decorated his head.
Hajovsky’s work shows the collection of symbols carved in
the rock around the ruler’s figure, which, following his and
other excellent iconographical studies, reveal that Moteuc-
zoma costumed himself not as Chalchiuhtlicue, but as Xipe
Totec, a deity of springtime and regeneration; still clearly
visible are Xipe’s rosette with four notched ribbons that
Moteuczoma wears on his right thigh, and his staff with
its four rosettes. This was not the first time Moteuczoma
costumed himself as Xipe; he did the same after a victory
over neighboring Toluca in 1501, and garbing himself asfiguRe 3.9. Unknown creator, portrait of Moteuczoma II, ca. 1507,
Chapultepec Park, Mexico City. Photograph by Patrick Hajovsky.
Reproduction authorized by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología
e Historia.
figuRe 3.10. Reconstruction drawing of the portrait of Moteuczoma II,
by Patrick Hajovsky.