The Flowery Matter of Chant. The Use of Organic Colors in Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican Codex Painting

In ancient Mesoamerica, brilliancy and chromatic richness were perceived as the most striking visual expressions of that “burst” of generative power that is inherent to the flower world and that is often described by means of a synesthetic overlapping between the blossoming of fragrant, colorful flowers and the oral enunciation of sacred chants. A similarly strict relationship between color and speech characterizes ancient Mesoamerican codices, whose colorful pages were ritually enunciated during ceremonial performances. Basing my discussion on data collected by means of scientific noninvasive analyses, I will explore the technical dimension of codex painting in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica in order to investigate how the selection of certain painting materials was driven by their physical and optical properties in order to create ritual items imbued with aesthetic values somehow related to the experiential perception of the flower worlds. I will argue that the preferential use of materials based on organic chromophores, characterized by a stunning polychromy and luminosity, was based on deeply entrenched aesthetic notions linking the fragrance, colorfulness, and brilliance of flowers with the generative power of ritual speech.