The Children of the Plumed Serpent: Art and Ritual in Mexico's Late Antiquity

The culture hero Quetzalcoatl, the Plumed Serpent, epitomizes a Mexican sense of national identity that is deeply rooted in the heroic qualities of its ancient art. Dr. John Pohl, co-curator of the exhibition Children of the Plumed Serpent: The Legacy of Quetzalcoatl in Ancient Mexico, presents his latest research on the Nahua, Mixtec, and Zapotec civilizations of southern Mexico—the Children of the Plumed Serpent, as they called themselves—and shows that while the fall of the Aztecs in 1521 heralded the end of that civilization, it signaled the rise of another whose legacy continued throughout the colonial period and persists to the present day.

Bing Theater | Free, no reservations

Image: Codex Nuttall, Mexico, Western Oaxaca, 15th–16th c., The British Museum Library, London, photo © Trustees of the British Museum/Art Resource, NY.