It is difficult to say for sure what kind of wood/tree that was used, it’s reasonable to assume that the carved handle of the knife is made up of one of the trees that Sahagún mentions. Sahagún also writes and describes the uses and appearances of the different trees that the Aztecs saw in their forests. Yet, while it was important to look at wood and trees as a group, it was just as important to talk about trees individually. As a pre-modern civilization, the natural world was still a powerful, driving force in the Aztec world that was not to be trifled with. It makes sense that the Aztecs would see the forest as such an evil and perilous place. the forest, and it was important to note where these mediums came from. It would seem that the Aztecs viewed wood almost holistically wood and trees as a medium existed as part of a greater whole, i.e. ![]() Sahagún goes on to talk about the beasts that live in the forest, and then eventually the different climates and how dangerous all of these make the forest. There is no joy, no pleasure.” (Sahagún 105-106). Misery abounds, misery emerges, misery spreads. “It is a place whence misery comes, where it exists a place where there is affliction-a place of affliction, of lamentation, a place of affliction, of weeping a place where there is sadness, a place of compassion, of sighing a place which arouses sorrow, which spreads misery.There is no one there are no people. It appears that for the Aztecs, the forest had a largely negative connotation: In Bernardino Sahagún’s Book 11, before talking about the medium of wood itself, Sahagún writes about how the Aztecs viewed and understood the forest where their wood came from. Within the Aztec context, wood is seen more or less similarly, but there are other connotations that we as modern day people do not see. Another limitation of wood is that it is not the most long lasting medium, as it is susceptible to water and dry rot, insect damage, and of course, fire. ![]() ![]() However, it takes special craftsmanship ability to really pull what you want out of the wood. It can also be considered to be a fairly easy medium to work with. Wood, for the most part, in contemporary art understanding is seen as an inexpensive and plentiful medium to use when compared to other materials like metal or stone. The first material that will be discussed is the wooden handle of the knife.
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