Images of violence: human sacrifice and the depiction of blood

The historiography of the study of human sacrifice in ancient Mesoamerica shows the study of pre-Columbian and colonial period visual representations of human sacrifice has left aside the study of these images essential features that provide important information that is not preserved in archaeological or written sources. To reveal how visual and plastic qualities give meaning to images of violence, -as part of a broad analysis that studies in what way ancient American images of sacrifice represent blood and heart sacrifice-, pre Columbian and Colonial period images of human sacrifice and depictions of blood are confronted to address the changing formal qualities of Sacrificial imagery. Linked to the study “Old World Christian Ritual and Sacrifice in the New World: Symbolization processes in XVI century Central Mexico”, that exposes in what way European artistic canons that reached América transformed indigenous representations of sacrifice, in this collaboration I focus on pre Columbian depictions of human sacrifice and carry out a review which opposes sacrificial imagery´s form. I am not concerned in the fact sacrifice is portrayed, but in how it is portrayed and how this relates to its understanding. I do not study sacrificial imagery's symbolism, but how through plastic qualities, representations of human sacrifice achieve a response, to give meaning.

In Ancient Mexico different manners of sacrifice: decapitation, heart sacrifice, flaying, arrow sacrifice and dismemberment are depicted, moreover the manner each is characterized is registered. The confrontation between mural painting from different regions of Mesoamerica.