One of the most striking manifestations of Mesoamerican art was mural painting. And Teotihuacan, because of its enormous size and the strength of its buildings covered with stucco inside and outside, was the place that produced the largest number of murals.
The favorite color of the Teotihuacans was red, a red which, in most cases, is obtained from iron oxide or hematite. Many exterior surfaces were decorated with a combination of red and white. The white, or rather ivory color, was nothing but the color of burnished stucco. The friezes of some pyramids and some exterior walls of other buildings had polychrome paintings that faced the street. But the majority of the colorful and complex paintings were part of the interior decoration of houses, palaces and monasteries. The colors of these paintings of the interiors was much more varied than would be used in the Post-Classic. In this fragment, in addition to red, you can also see green, yellow and some blue.
The fragment before us was cut out and removed from the wall assembly known today as Techinantitla, and was part of a group of representations in which there were other birds, snakes, trees, calendrical signs and other motifs. The color green, the crest and the tail allow us to identify the quetzal, a bird so important for the Teotihuacans that the headdress insignia of the city was crowned with quetzal feathers. These plumes are associated with vegetation and also with wealth and power.
The figure of the quetzal is parading or marching. This is very common in Teotihuacan and Mesoamerican art in general: what we might call an anthropomorphism of animals. Indeed, it is typical of Teotihuacan mural painting to portray figures in profile as they advance in procession. In addition, this quetzal carries a standard, which must be a war banner since other quetzals of the same pictorial set carried shields or chimallis.
A scroll coming out of the beak indicates that the bird is singing. This use of the scroll is very common in Teotihuacan, and even since those times already had the polysemy we observe in the Post-Classic: music, singing, shouting, and in other contexts, smoke, sound and aroma.
One of the most striking manifestations of Mesoamerican art was mural painting. And Teotihuacan, because of its enormous size and the strength of its buildings covered with stucco inside and outside, was the place that produced the largest number of murals.
