The Cross, the Sacrifice, and Native Christian Ornament. A Glimpse into a mid Sixteenth-Century Pottery Workshop in the Valley of Mexico

Abstract

This work is based on the analysis of a circular ceramic piece with indigenous and Christian symbols from Teotihuacán, recovered at the end of the 19th century. After a comparison with other pieces —among them, three other discs, hitherto unpublished— the whole group is shown to belong to a pottery workshop probably linked to the arts and crafts school of the Franciscans. It is the largest sample of sixteenth-century indigenous Christian liturgical pottery.