Tlacuilolli Redrawn: Agostino Aglio and Mexican Antiquity

In the early nineteenth century, images of ancient American art became widely available for the first time in the aftermath of political and technological revolutions. As these works circulated, they were appropriated and transformed in new contexts. 

This exhibition examines the place of Mexican antiquity in British visual culture through the work of Agostino Aglio (1777–1857), an Italian artist active in Britain in the early to mid-nineteenth century. 

Aglio contributed to the first modern exposition of ancient American art and the first publication of complete color facsimiles of Aztec, Maya, and Mixtec manuscripts. Through his illustrations and reproductions, Aglio’s hand mediated how subsequent artists and scholars visualized the ancient Americas. 

Bringing together Mesoamerican art from across Yale’s campus and showcasing the YCBA’s important collection of works on paper, the exhibition explores Indigenous traditions of creation and their legacies.

Credit: Overview from museum website