1673 Engraving of a Peruvian Lord on a Litter as Figures Are Buried Alive
DESCRIPTION
An engraved scene of a lord on a litter as figures are buried alive appears in this excerpted leaf from the Peru section of the 1673 German edition of Arnoldus Montanus's account of the Americas.
In the center of the scene, a lord in a feathered headdress reclines on a litter borne on poles beneath a canopy hung with weapons and a quiver, while a standing attendant holds a long tube to his lips. At left, a procession of men in feathered headdresses carry bowls heaped with food beneath a banner. In the foreground, men with spades and hoes heap earth over figures buried up to their necks, their heads and raised hands still showing above the ground. At right, a tall man in a feathered crown, with large disc ornaments at his ear and across his chest, stands on a stone platform holding a broad-bladed spear, while figures sit and kneel at its foot, one with a hand raised.
The engraving is uncaptioned and neither side of the leaf describes a scene like the one seen here. The burials may reflect the custom, reported by Spanish chroniclers, of burying a Peruvian lord's wives and servants with him, though the text does not confirm this reading. The text below describes a temple close to Cusco where the Peruvian kings gathered the images of all the gods and goddesses worshipped across Peru. The chief image, Punchao, was made of pure gold and dedicated to the sun, with a plate on its forehead in which a second sun could be seen whenever sunlight struck it. The Spanish captain Mancio Sierra de Leguízamo is said to have taken the plate as plunder and gambled it away the same night, giving rise to the saying that he lost the sun before it rose. The temple itself is described as built of stones fitted so closely that no joints could be seen, its walls lined inside with gold plate a finger thick. The reverse surveys sun worship among other ancient peoples, from the Arabs who burned incense on their rooftops to the Greeks, who are said to have crowned a great pole with a copper ball for the sun and hung it with 365 wreaths for the days of the year.
Arnoldus Montanus (ca. 1625–1683), a Dutch minister and schoolmaster, compiled De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld from earlier chronicles and travel accounts without ever crossing the Atlantic. The Amsterdam publisher Jacob van Meurs issued it in 1671 with a wealth of engravings. John Ogilby's English adaptation followed the same year, and Die Unbekante Neue Welt, the German edition attributed to Olfert Dapper, followed in 1673. Its illustrations were drawn by artists who had mostly never seen the Americas either. They mix reported detail with European invention, and they shaped how a generation of European readers pictured the New World.
CONDITION
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