Painting Guide for an Aztec Army
This page is based in part on Jim Esler's Meet the Aztecs web page plus furious rummaging in various books for illustrations.
I suggest you also look at my Shields page for more examples of shield designs.
Generals and command figures
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Relevant Osprey plates:
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| Aztec General (Codex Mendosa) | Nezahualcoyotl of Texcoco (Codex Ixtlilxochitl) |
Cuachicqueh Military Order
The Cuachicqueh ('Shorn Ones') military order formed their own units (Heath,
1999; Meet
the Aztecs). Cuachicqueh were distinguished by their Mohawk
hairstyle. Some, perhaps all, had the yellow cotton suit and the citlalpamitl (star backbanner)
of the guy illustrated (Pohl, 1991; Meet
the Aztecs), although Heath has some Cuachicqueh in breechclout without the
suit. The guy illustrated also has a necklace of white
shells.
The shield illustrated (from Codex Mendosa) is often associated with the Cuachicqueh, but is not unique to them - it also appears in Codex Mendosa next to a blue suit with claw backbanner (Otontin?) and a yellow suit with umbrella backbanner (Captain?). One of the two Cuachic figures in Heath (1999) has this shield, and the other has a simple woven cane shield.
They had a Heron feather glued to their temple (Heath, 1999). They also are likely to have painted their heads; if painted they would have used one of two possible schemes:
- In the colours of the war god Painal - vertically divided, half blue and half yellow (or red).
- Black on top of head, and possibly the neck as well.
Relevant Osprey plates:
- C1 Mexica Cuahchic (Pohl, 1991).
Otontin Military Order
The Otontin military order also formed their own units (Heath,
1999; Meet
the Aztecs). The distinctive feature is the hair - variations on the
ethnic Otomi style (or in the case of the guy illustrated a cross between the
ethnic Otomi and the Aztec veterans). The otontin wore a bodysuit and some, perhaps all, had a xopilli (clawback
backbanner). The Codex Mendoza shows red, green and blue uniforms worn in
conjunction with this backbanner.
Unlike the Cuachicqueh these guys seemed to use a variety of shields. The illustration shown (from the Codex Mendosa) is a variant of the quetzalcuexyochimalli ("Quetzal feather Huaxtec shield") but with blue waves ending in yellow discs instead of normal nose-moons.
Eagle Military Order
The Eagle military orders fought in their own separate units and not surprisingly wore an Eagle suit (Meet the Aztecs). All the illustrations I've seen have the suit in a brownish colour, however Jim Esler (private communication) believes they would have worn the normal variety of red, blue and green in addition to brown. Only some depictions of Eagle Warriors have a back banner, and presumably these are officers within the order.
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Relevant Osprey plates
- D1 Aztec Eagle Warrior (Wise, 1980)
Jaguar Military Order
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As you can see the Jaguar Military Order is one of the more frequently illustrated types of warrior: They fought in their own separate units (Meet the Aztecs). Pohl (1991) claims that the Jaguar suit wearers who had captured four captives were different to the Military order of Jaguar knights recruited from the nobles, but doesn't back up his claim; this seems unlikely to Jim Esler and myself. |
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| Codex Mendosa. Pohl, 1991, describes this as the dress of a 4-captive warrior | Codex Magliabechiano | Florentine Codex | Florentine Codex. He lacks the normal headress, but has the tail and spots. |
Possible suit colours:
- Blue with black spots (Plate B1 Triple Alliance Jaguar Warrior, Pohl, 1991) - 75% of those in the Codex Mendosa.
- Yellow with black spots (Plate D2 Aztec Jaguar Warrior, Wise, 1980)
- Red with black spots (Codex Mendoza).
- Possibly orange with black spots (Juan de Tovar, Florentine Codex and Codex Magliabechiano all have figures having orange with black spots, which could either be orange, a different shade of red or perhaps yellow or even actual Jaguar skin - I don't know.)
- White with black spots (Tribute list from Codex Mendoza)
Wise (1980) says the shield colours were fixed except the border around the shield could vary (he says usually it was yellow), however, as you can see from teh illustrations above Jaguars come with all types of shield patterns so the usual variety would be fine.
Relevant Osprey plates
- D2 Aztec Jaguar Warrior (Wise, 1980)
- B1 Triple Alliance Jaguar Warrior (Pohl, 1991)
Other Suit Wearers
Captains (i.e. veteran warriors) and Warrior Priests formed the remaining suit wearers. Captains should be mixed with their men, including both the Military Orders and Clan Warriors. It is unlikely that priests fought as separate units, so should probably also be mixed through the other units.
Tlacochcalcatl
A tlacochcalcatl
is one of the senior officials found in the Codex Mendoza. This
individual on the right wears the white tzitzimitl or frightful spectre costume.
Notice the thin red lines on lower legs and forearms. Again,
there are several other styles depicted elsewhere in the Codex: red; blue; and
yellow.
Captain in a full bodysuit with a quaxolatl (umbrella backbanner)
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Possible colour schemes:
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Coyote Warrior
Mexica coyotl or coyote warrior. Suit colours from Codex Mendoza:
- Yellow - the most common colour - like Plate E1 (Pohl, 1991) and
Suit colours from Sahagun's Primeros Memoriales:
- Red
- Blue
- White
- Black
- Purple
- Starry-sky (I guess similar to Plate C2 Mexica Warrior Priest, Pohl, 1991)
- Fire. This is a dark colour with red feathers hanging from it.
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From Florentine Codex. I consider the grey-ish suit unlikely as most figures from that particular picture are in various shades of grey. |
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From Codex Mendosa. |
Three-captive Warrior
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A three-captive warrior is shown sporting a papalotl (butterfly backbanner). The Codex Mendoza depicts three suit colours with this backbanner:
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Huaxtec uniform (i.e. pointy hat)
Several uniforms were in the Huaxtec style, with a full bodysuit with a pointed conical hat. The Huaxtec uniform was not restricted to the priesthood, and additionally was only one of several types that priests could wear. This basic uniform is found in many colours throughout the Codex Mendoza:
- blue, red, yellow, green and white
In the following patterns:
- Solid colours.
- Decorated with short black parallel lines (similar to equal signs) called hawk scratches, e.g. 2 captive warrior in red suit.
- Starry sky, e.g. 4 captive Warrior Priest. This uniform is found in the ethnography section of the Codex Mendoza, and is the basis of Plate C2 Mexica Warrior Priest (Pohl, 1991).
Some, but not all, suit wearers dressed in the Huaxtec style had a shield that matched the suit pattern for example:
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| Codex Mendosa. Pohl, 1991, describes this as the dress of a 2-captive warrior Notice the shield pattern matches the suit. |
This shield appears in a tribute list of the Codex Mendosa next to a Huaxtec suit of a similar blue with darker blue hawk scratches (the parallel lines). |
This is the shield of the 4 captive Warrior Priest mentioned above. The Priest wears a black suit and Huaxtec hat, both with white dots like the shield. (see Pohl, 1991, Plate C2 Mexica Warrior Priest ). |
Priests
As already noted the 2-captive Priests wore Huaxtec uniform. All priests were distinguished by hair style and red patches of paint on each side other their heads. Some may have painted horizontal and vertical stripes on their faces.
Miscellaneous others
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The chaps to the right are all from an army marching to war in the Florentine Codex. They don't appear to be any particular Military Order. I distrust the fact that all the suits in that particular picture are greyish - I suspect the normal range (yellow, blue, green, red) more likely. |
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Macehualtin Clan Warriors
Any cotton quilted armour is depicted as natural unbleached white. (Meet the Aztecs also suggests a pale drab green, although I've only seen Texcalans wearing this colour).
All shields are painted yellow or as the tlahuauitectli (whitewashed) shield. The larger shields have either a blue, red or white border. A few shields have patterns.
Few, if any, Aztec warriors painted their faces - in stark contrast to their opponents (Heath, 1999). Yellow with red stripes is a possibility.
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| This style of shield is the most common shield illustrated for the lower class of warrior. In this case both the Aztec 3 captive warrior and his most recent conquest have the same shield design. | This shield design is also used by Suit Wearers. | This guy is actually a Colhua captive, however, the Mexica had a close link with Colhuacan so I assume they may have used the same shields as well. |
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| This guy is actually a farmer, but I suspect his costume is typical for clan warriors. |
If you do want specifically Otomi tribesmen then they differed from the Mexica by having their hair clipped short (Duran, 1964, note 60).
Relevant Osprey plates
- E2 Aztec Peasant Levy (Wise, 1980)
- I think it highly unlikely that a peasant would have this nice feathered shield.
- B2 Aztec soldier (Pohl, 1991)
- C3 Triple Alliance Soldier (Pohl, 1991)
Archers
Relevant Osprey plates
- E1 Aztec Archer (Wise, 1980)
Baggage / Porters
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These chaps appear in the Florentine Codex as part of a procession of warriors heading for war. Given they're wearing patterned mantles and one of them is carrying some kind of idol, my guess is they are priests. |
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Military service was compulsory, and for youths this meant carrying the baggage of veterans in the hope of learning their war craft. |
- Tlaxcalan Porter (Wise, 1980)
Temples and Pyramids
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A human sacrifice scene from the codex magliabechiano. And a temple, of course. |
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A scene from the Florentine Codex where a guard on the temple of Huitzilopochtli gives the alarm as the Spanish escape the city. |