The Aztec Pantheon and the Art of Empire

When the Aztec Empire emerged to dominate central Mexico from 1460 to 1519, vast amounts of tribute wealth flowed into the capital city of Tenochtitlan, enabling artists and architects to create sophisticated works on a monumental scale. Confronting a civilization without precedent, some Spanish conquistadors and missionaries looked to the classical past for explanations and parallels were drawn between two great empires—the Aztec and the Roman.
While many studies dwell on the Aztec gods …