Enconchado series 1

Scene 1 from the Enconchado series of 24 works created in Mexico in the late 17th century depicting the conquest of Mexico. c.1680-1700, colonial, oil on canvas and shell, 112.5 cms high. Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Cortés dines with Moctezuma’s envoys. This scene depicts Hernán Cortés soon after landing at Veracruz entertaining two of Moctezuma’s envoys at an al fresco meal waited upon by attendants. The party is seated at a table under an awrning with Cortés at the centre. In the background is Cortés’s fleet of vessels, grounded on his instruction to prevent his men retreating. From Moctezuma: Aztec Ruler, British Museum exhibition catalogue, London, 2009, p. 246.

Photo by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore.