Travel

FIGURE 20. Prehispanic-style roads: Cell 30 of the Lienzo de Tlaxcala.

FIGURE 20. Prehispanic-style roads: Cell 30 of the Lienzo de Tlaxcala.

FIGURE 21. Colonial roads: Cells 43 and 44 of the Lienzo de Tlaxcala.

FIGURE 21. Colonial roads: Cells 43 and 44 of the Lienzo de Tlaxcala.

Cell 29 is flanked by two double-wide cells which frame and highlight the central scene between them. Cell 30 is filled with winding paths marked with footprints: a classic Mesoamerican convention for showing roadways and, by extension, travel (Figure 20). Cell 30 concerns the organization of supplies on the coast of Veracruz for overland shipment to Tlaxcala. Its visual roadways help to underscore the theme of travel. All of the paths in Cell 30 are marked only with human footprints, in classic prehispanic style. In other cells, however—such as in Cells 43 and 44, two rows down—this convention for travel has been updated to reflect the colonial present. Human footprints are joined by the crescent-shaped hoofprints of horses (Figure 21).

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