Aztec Mosaic Mask in the Museum of Ethnography

Scientific and museological investigations have confirmed the authenticity of the rare mosaic mask on display in the Museum of Ethnography’s new exhibition. The mask, which dates from the Aztec period and originates from central Mexico, features genuine turquoise inlay and was probably the work of Mixtec master craftsmen. The mask takes pride of place in the ZOOM space of the museum’s new permanent exhibition. It has already been admired by over 100,000thousands of visitors since the Museum of Ethnography opened in its new location at the end of May.

The first objects of this kind were brought back to Europe in 1533 by Dominican missionaries to Mexico and were presented to Pope Clement VII in an attempt to prove that the Mexican Indians who had been conquered by the Spanish were an advanced civilisation capable of producing sophisticated works of art. The items that were taken to Italy by the Church ended up in various private collections, eventually becoming the prized possessions of institutions such as the British Museum in London, the Weltmuseum in Vienna, and the Museo Pigorini in Rome. New items began to surface at the end of the nineteenth century. This last wave of discoveries included the remarkable artefact acquired by the Museum of Ethnography in the context of a series of exchanges that took place between 1973 and 1980.

Very little was known about the object when it was acquired by the museum, and even its provenance was uncertain. The entry in the museum’s inventory states merely: mosaic mask, Mexico, Mixtec; material: wood, turquoise, shell. It was this intriguing lack of data that prompted János Gyarmati, a specialist at the Museum of Ethnography, to carry out a number of scientific investigations and museological studies to establish the object’s authenticity, identify the materials from which it was made, and learn more about its provenance, its cultural context, and the composition of the artefact ensemble to which it may once have belonged.

Between 1973 and 1980, when the lack of Western currency in Socialist Hungary ruled out purchases on the art market, the Museum of Ethnography was involved in a series of exchanges with foreign art dealers. Like several museums of ethnology in East Germany, the museum owned an extensive and marketable Oceanic collection, at a time when trade in nineteenth-century attested objects from Oceania was already restricted. The museum gave away 137 objects from Oceania, Indonesia and Asia in return for a total of 244 African, American, Indonesian and Oceanic objects. The items acquired by the museum in 1973 included this Mexican mask with mosaic inlay, which was a genuine rarity at the time.

The archaeometric investigations on the mask were carried out in the Centre for Energy Research and the Research Centre for the Natural Sciences of the Eötvös Loránd Research Network; the Laboratory for Heritage Science of the Eötvös Loránd Research Network’s Atomki Institute for Nuclear Research in Debrecen; the Lithosphere Fluid Research Laboratory of Eötvös Loránd University; the Hungarian National Museum’s National Centre for Conservation and Conservation Training; the Thünen-Institut für Holzforschung in Hamburg; the Poznan Radiocarbon Laboratory; and the Institute of Archaeology of Leiden University.

The results revealed that the mask dates from the late fifteenth to early sixteenth century, that it was made from a species of alder native to Mexico, and that, as in the case of other, similar masks, pine resin was used to secure the mosaic tesserae. These findings provided unequivocal proof of the Aztec mask’s authenticity. To investigate the chemical composition of the different types of inlay and pigments, non-destructive laboratory measurements were taken using a hand-held X-ray fluorescence analyser and Raman spectroscopy at more than 40 points on the mask, as well as high-resolution scanning electron microscopy (SEM, using a 3D digital microscope). The investigations proved beyond doubt that all the examined green and blue-green tesserae are turquoise, while their high zinc and low iron content makes them comparable to the turquoise finds unearthed in the principle temple of the capital of the Aztec Empire, known as the Templo Mayor.

The overlay of light-coloured tesserae bordering the turquoise inlay comprises three different materials, as confirmed by chemical analyses: the pearlescent white/pale grey tesserae were revealed to be alabaster, while the porous, eggshell-coloured tesserae are made from claystone. The material used for the smooth, light yellow tesserae could not be determined with certainty; Raman spectroscopy of the material indicated the presence of anatase, which occurs in white clay or claystone (kaolin). The higher iron content in the red-coloured areas compared to their surroundings (by ten times in some places) suggests the use of iron-rich earth paints. The significant potassium, calcium and sulphur content in the black painted eyebrows indicates the use of a pigment containing ash or charcoal.

Museological and cultural research was undertaken in parallel with the scientific investigations of the mask. This research revealed that the two art dealers involved in the exchanges with the Museum of Ethnography had sold two very similar artefact ensembles to museums in Belgium, Germany and America at around the same time. In addition to masks similar to the Budapest mask but of far inferior quality, these artefact ensembles comprised objects, pottery items, textiles, sandals, painted bark cloth that could be attached to a reed frame for use in ceremonial attire, jewellery, and human remains, secured with plaited bulrushes and cords, suggesting that the mask formed part of a healing or mortuary bundle, which was a figurine representing the gods or ancestors that was concealed in a dry cave.

When determining the function of these artefact ensembles, pictograms in the Aztec codices depicting various ceremonies, including funeral rites, proved to be enormously helpful. Documentation from the respective museums also indicates that the artefact ensembles, including the Museum of Ethnography’s mask, originate from caves situated on the state border between Puebla and Oaxaca in central Mexico, suggesting that the mask may have been the work of the Mixtec artisans living in this area, who were known for their exceptional craftsmanship, and that it may have come into the possession of art dealers during the excavations carried out there in the 1960s.

Photoes by Edit Garai, Museum of Ethnograpy