Beaux Arts Hors Série- Mexica - Des dons et des dieux au Templo Mayor

Description

In the heart of Mexico City (Tenochtitlan) sat a 7-step temple where priests and dignitaries of the Mexican civilisation - long wrongly called Aztec - officiated at its summit. This temple was completely destroyed by Cortes and his friends. Today, the foundations of the Templo Mayor have been found. Research and the discovery of numerous objects have enabled us to gain a better understanding of how the temple functioned and the religion of the Mexican people, with its host of gods to whom numerous gifts were offered in order to obtain their favours and beneficial intervention. The best-known, Quetzalcoatl - god of civilisation - dominated this valhalla of the Mexican Empire, just as Huitzilopochtli was the god of war and the sun. This fascinating exhibition sketches the outline of a civilisation that had no qualms about sacrificing children to please the gods, who were supposed to decide the destiny of the little men struggling on this earth. Beaux Arts Éditions lifts the veil on a dynamic, predatory society, but also on artistic excellence and complex symbolic and religious thought. Exhibition at the Musée du Quai Branly, from 3 April to 8 September 2024.