La gran ciudad de Temixtitan (Tenochtitlan, 1524). Woodcut. From Praeclara Fernanandi de Nova Maris Oceani Hispana Narratio (Nuremberg, 1524). The Newberry Library, Chicago.

"Often attributed to Cortes, this is one of the first views of the Aztec capital. The style is European but the map-view also contains information that suggests a native source" (Kagan 2000: 65).

 

Cusco Regni Peru In Novo Orbe Caiut. Engraving. From G. Braun and F. Hogenberg, Civitates orbis terrarum, vol. 1. (Cologne, 1572). Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid.

"The Europeanized image of Cuzco, like that of the map-view of Tenochtitlan/Mexico City, changed little in the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as publishers tended to recycle the first view published by Ramusio in 1556" (Kagan 2000: 96).

 Aztec Reconnaissance Map, from the Florentine Codex, vol. 2, bk. 8, fol. 33v.

"To help prepare their attack strategies, the Aztecs were known to prepare reconnaissance maps. Here two soldiers point to a map representing the town appearing at the upper right. The footsteps indicate the line of attack" (Kagan 2000: 98).

 

Map of Texupa (1579). Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid.

"This map, prepared in conjunction with the Relaciones Geograficas ordered by Philip II in 1576, is an excellent example of the kind of 'hybrid' or 'mixed' cartography that appeared in sixteenth-century New Spain. It incorporates certain European elements--the grid, for example--with others--the toponymic glyph representing the temple, the footsteps indicating movement--taken from indigenous maps" (Kagan 2000: 35).

Anon. Il Cuscho Citta Principale Della Provincia Del Peru. Engraving. From G.B. Ramusio, Viaggi et Navegationi. (Venice, 1556).

"This much-reproduced image of Cuzco reflected what Europeans in the sixteenth century imagined the Inca capital to be like: large, walled, and symmetrical, a city that conformed with their own idealized standards of urban life" (Kagan 2000: 70).

 

Anon. Conquista y reduccion... de San Pedro en Guatemala (c. 1680). Oil on canvas. Museo de America, Madrid.

"This complex painting, which offers an illustrated narrative of the conquest of the region and the foundation of the reduccion, is also an allegory on the benefits of urban life. Note the difference between the Christianized Indians living in the town and the more 'natural' life of the natives outside the orbit of urban life" (Kagan 2000: 38).

Juan de Matienzo, Plan for an Indian village or reduccion. New York Public Library, Obbediah Rich Collection, MS Rich 74, fol. 38r.

"Matienzo wanted to promote civilization and policia among the natives of Peru by forcibly resettling them in 'ordered' settlements, called reducciones, similar to the one drawn here" (Kagan 2000: 37).

 

Anon. Defense of La Paz (1781). Oil on canvas. Casa de Murillo, La Paz.

"Commissioned to commemorate the defense of La Paz during a native uprising, the artist portrayed the city as an ordered place. Threatening it were hordes of native soldiers, whose tiny figures may just be detected on the top of the ridge in the background. Flanking both sides of this 'plan plus elevation' are the corpses of rebel leaders" (Kagan 2000: 149).

Guaman Poma de Ayala. Nueva coronica y buen gobierno de las Indias. 1980. edn. Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid.

On left: La ciudad de los reyes. Lima (c. 1614). "Guaman Poma described Lima as a 'civilized, Christian, charitable and neighborly' city. The gallows in the plaza mayor symbolized the 'good justice' that prevailed in Lima, 'Capital of the entire kingdom" (Kagan 2000: 126).

On right: Arequipa (c. 1614)."The city is portrayed at the moment its citizens organized a religious procession to help protect them from the 'black vomit' of a nearby volcano. The statute [sic] of the Virgin they carry is undoubtedly that of our Lady of Cayma, an important local devotion" (Kagan 2000: 126).