The House and Temple of Huitzilopochtli

“Inical, Initeocal in Huitzilopochtli”
The House and Temple of Huitzilopochtli - Commissioned by Trey the Explainer.

This is my interpretation of the sanctuary of Huitzilopochtli, one of two magnificent chapels that once crowned the Great Temple of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Within its hallowed grounds rested the war god Huitzilopochtli, depicted in the illustration as resting upon the central altar. Surrounding the image of the god lay two statues made of tzoalli and one made of wood, dressed in the monthly garnishes of Huitzilopochtli’s many aspects, epitaphs and/or identities: Huitzilopochtli Ixteocal, Paynal and Tezcatlipoca, to name just a few. The small wooden statue of Paynal would guide several of the yearly festivities, while the two tzoalli sculptures, central to at least four of the year’s most important festivals, would each be sacrificed, in Toxcatl and Panquetzaliztli respectively. Finally, hidden to the viewer and indeed most of those who would have had the grace to enter the sanctuary, rested the sacred bundle of Huitzilopochtli himself, hidden within the chambers of the great chapel. This most sacred image had accompanied the Mexica since their migration from Aztlan itself and would survive the destruction wrought by the Spaniards and their allied forces, hidden in Azcapotzalco and then taken to Tula, its whereabouts eventually lost to time.

To depict this painting, I researched exhaustively and contrasted as many sources as was available to me, and while this is my interpretation of the data, one that I expect to be contentious if you are intimately familiar with the subject matter, every single aspect of this illustration is based on material or historical evidence that is either directly linked to the Great Temple or reasonably associated with the deities themselves.