Colonial chalice cover

Courtesy of the Werner-Forman Archive

Disc used as a chalice cover, the only featherwork example from the early colonial period. Mixing Aztec symbols with the recently arrived Christian ideas, the whirlpool, symbol of the goddess
Chalchiuhtlicue, now represents the Holy Water, while the flame
represents the blood of Christ. Feathers and bark, from Hidalgo, c. 1540. National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City.