Mexican featherwork, also called "plumería", was an important artistic and decorative technique in the pre-Hispanic and colonial periods in what is now Mexico. Although feathers have been prized and feather works created in other parts of the world, those done by the amanteca or feather work specialists impressed Spanish conquerors, leading to a creative exchange with Europe. Featherwork pieces took on European motifs in Mexico. Feathers and feather works became prized in Europe. The "golden age" for this technique as an art form was from just before the Spanish conquest to about a century afterwards.
At the beginning of the 17th century, it began a decline due to the death of the old masters, the disappearance of the birds that provide fine feathers and the depreciation of indigenous handiwork. Feather work, especially the creation of "mosaics" or "paintings" principally of religious images remained noted by Europeans until the 19th century, but by the 20th century, the little that remained had become a handcraft, despite efforts to revive it.
Today, the most common feather objects are those made for traditional dance costumes, although mosaics are made in the state of Michoacán, and feather trimmed huipils are made in the state of Chiapas.
Mesoamerican featherwork
The use of feather for decorative purposes has been documented in many parts of the world in the past. In the New World, it is known to have had ceremonial use and ranking purposes, especially in attire in what are now Brazil and Peru.Castello Yturbide, p. 18Meneses, p. 22 In Mesoamerica, their use became highly developed with some of the most intricate examples coming from what is now central Mexico.Castello Yturbide, p. 17 One reason for this was their symbolic and religious use.Meneses, p. 19 Much of this symbolism arose with the spread of the worship of the Toltec god/king Quetzalcoatl, depicted as a serpent covered in quetzal feathers. Quetzalcoatl was said to have discovered gold, silver and precious stones. When he fled Tula, he released all kind of birds he was breeding.Castello Yturbide, p. 17Castello Yturbide, p. 33 The Aztec main god, Huitzilopochtli, is associated with the hummingbird. His origin is from ball of fine feathers that fell on his mother, Coatlicue, and impregnated her. He was born fully armed with an eagle feather shield, fine plumage in his head and on his left sandal.Russo, p. 3
Feathers were valued similarly to jade and turquoise in Mesoamerica. They were considered to have magical properties as symbols of fertility, abundance, riches and power and those who used them were associated with divine powers.Castello Yturbide, p. 27 Evidence of use goes back at least as far as the Mayas, with depictions of them on the murals at Bonampak. The Mayans also raised birds in part for feathers.Castello Yturbide, p. 82Castello Yturbide, p. 19 Toltec groups were making feathered items from black and white feathers of local origin. The most developed use of feathers in Mesoamerica was among the Aztecs, Tlaxcaltecs and Purepecha. Feathers were used to make many types of objects from arrows, fly whisks, fans, complicated headdresses and fine clothing.Castello Yturbide, p. 238
By the reign of the Aztec ruler Ahuizotl, richer feathers from tropical areas came to the Aztec Empire with quetzal and the finest feathers used by Moctezuma's reign. Feathers were used for ceremonial shields, and the garments of Aztec eagle warriors were completely covered in feathers. Feather work dressed idols and priests as well.Castello Yturbide, p. 20 Moctezuma asked the Purépecha for help against the Spanish by sending gifts that included quetzal feathers. Among the Purépecha, feathers were used similarly, for ceremonial shields, bucklers, doublets for the cazonci or ruler and feather ceremonial garments for priests, warriors and generals. To declare war, the Purépecha showed enemies wood covered in feathers and send highly prized green feathers to allies and potential allies. Soldiers who died in war were buried with feathers.Castello Yturbide, p. 143Castello Yturbide, p. 81
Feathers from local and faraway sources were used, especially in the Aztec Empire. The feathers were obtained from wild birds as well as from domesticated turkeys and ducks, with the finest feathers coming from Chiapas, Guatemala and Honduras.Castello Yturbide, pp. 27, 35 These feathers were obtained through trade and tribute.Castello Yturbide, p. 35 Feathers functioned as a kind of currency along with cocoa beans, and were a popular trade item because of their value and ease of transport over long distances and a close relationship developed between traders and feather workers.Castello Yturbide, pp. 33–36
Certain areas were required to pay tribute in raw feathers and other in finished feather goods, but no area was required to provide both.Castello Yturbide, p. 65 Cuetzalan paid tribute to Moctezuma in the form of quetzal feathers. This demand was so great that it led to the local extinction of quetzals in that region, leaving only the name of a local tree, quetzalcuahuitl, where the birds used to hide to eat.Castello Yturbide, pp. 196–196
The most important of feathers in central Mexico were the long green feathers of the resplendent quetzal which were reserved for deities and the emperor. One reason for their rarity was that quetzals could not be domesticated as they died in captivity. Instead wild birds were caught, plucked and released.Castello Yturbide, p. 28 Other tropical birds were used as well. Bernardino de Sahagún made a list of the species used for fine feathers, many of which are now either threatened or locally extinct. These include the mountain trogon, lovely cotinga, roseate spoonbill, squirrel cuckoo, red-legged honeycreeper, emerald toucanet, agami heron, russet-crowned motmot, turquoise-browed motmot, blue grosbeak, golden eagle, great egret, military macaw, scarlet macaw, yellow-headed amazon, Montezuma oropendola and the over 53 species of hummingbird found in Mexico.Castello Yturbide, p. 207Castello Yturbide, p. 235
In Aztec society, the class that created feather objects was called the amanteca, named after the Amantla neighborhood in Tenochtitlan where they lived and worked.Castello Yturbide, p. 14 The amanteca had their own god, Coyotlinahual, who had companions called Tizaua, Mamiocelotl and Mamiltochtli. They also honored the female deities Xiuhtlati and Xilo.Castello Yturbide, p. 56Meneses, p. 18 Daughters of amanteca generally became embroiderers and feather dyers, with the boys dedicated to the making of feather objects. The amanteca were a privileged class of craftsmen. They did not pay tribute nor were required to perform public service. They had a fair amount of autonomy in how they ran their businesses. Feather work was so highly prized that even sons of nobility learned something of it during their education.Castello Yturbide, p. 57 The sophistication of this art can be seen in pieces created before the Conquest, some of which are part of the collection of the Museum of Ethnology in Vienna, such as Montezuma's headdress, the ceremonial coat of arms and the great fan or fly whisk. Other important examples such as shields are in museums in Mexico City.
The Florentine Codex gives information about how feather works were created. The amantecas had two ways of creating their works. One was to secure the feathers in place using agave cord for three-dimensional objects such as fly whisks, fans, bracelets, headgear and other objects. The second and more difficult was a mosaic type technique, which the Spanish also called "feather painting." These were done principally on feather shields and cloaks for idols.Russo, p. 25Castello Yturbide, p. 70 Feather mosaics were arrangements of minute fragments of feathers from a wide variety of birds, generally worked on a paper base, made from cotton and paste, then itself backed with amate paper, but bases of other types of paper and directly on amate were done as well.Russo, p. 5Castello Yturbide, p. 202 These works were done in layers with "common" feathers, dyed feathers and precious feathers. First a model was made with lower quality feathers and the precious feathers found only on the top layer. The adhesive for the feathers in the Mesoamerican period was made from orchid bulbs.
Sometimes feathers were dyed, and sometimes fine lines or dots were painted on the feathers themselves.Castello Yturbide, p. 203 In some of the most precious of Aztec art, feathers were combined with gold and precious stones.Russo, p. 27 Feather art needs to be protected from light, which fades the colors and from insects that eat them. Preservatives were made with several kinds of plants, but today commercial insecticides are used.Castello Yturbide, pp. 202–203
One other way to use feathers was the creation of garments either decorated with feathers or with thread which was created by spinning cotton and feather shreds. The garments of eagle warriors were completely covered in feathers. Fabric made of the latter was favored by the nobility, both men and women which distinguished them from commoners. Little is known how feathers were incorporated into fabric in the Mesoamerican period.Castello Yturbide, p. 77 The only vestige of this practice is the making of wedding huipils in the town of Zinacantán in Chiapas.
Although research has shown this practice is descended from the Mesoamerican one, it is still different. The Mesoamerican feathered cloth was made with thread made of cotton fiber and feathers done on a backstrap loom, which the current wedding huipils incorporate feathers into commercially spun cotton thread.Meneses, p. 88
European discovery of featherwork When the Spanish arrived to Mexico, they were impressed with the bird species of the land and the use of feather, with Hernán Cortés receiving among his gifts feathers from Moctezuma. As early as 1519, Cortés sent feathered shields, head adornments, and fans to Spain. In 1524, Diego de Soto returned to Spain from the New World. Among the gifts for King Charles V was artwork, including that made with feathers, such as shields with scenes of sacrifice, serpents, butterflies, birds and crests. In 1527, Cortés sent thirty eight pieces of what are identified as feather work to Asia.Castello Yturbide, p. 11
After the Conquest, the art of working with feathers survived, but on a lesser scale and its uses changed. pagan ritual use ended with Christian evangelization, with some surviving works conveying Christian religious themes. Featherwork's use in war also remained. One type of feather work to remains strong was the creation of mosaics, many of which were created and sent to Europe, Guatemala and Peru.Castello Yturbide, p. 40 They were even sent as far as Asia as gifts but little is known of this trade.Castello Yturbide, p. 104 Exotic feathers themselves were exported to Europe and used to adorn hats, horses and clothing.Castello Yturbide, p. 40
The importance of feather work and the impression it made on the Spanish is documented by Spaniards such as Hernán Cortés, Francisco de Aguilar, Bartolomé de las Casas, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, Francisco López de Gómara, Peter Martyr, Fray Bernardino de Sahagún and Andres de Tapia.Castello Yturbide, p. 12 Feathers add chromatic and luminous feathers difficult to create with paints, although oil painting at the time had well developed techniques to play with light. Mexican expertise was valued as well. Even though there was feather art also made in Asia, it was not as valued in the 16th and 17th century as that from Mexico.Castello Yturbide, p. 103
Featherwork with Christian themes