{"product_id":"flickering-creations-allison-caplan-9780691280431","title":"Flickering Creations: Concepts of Nahua Precious Art","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe first book to recover the Indigenous aesthetic principles that guided how artists of the Aztec Empire created precious art\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFor the Nahua people of the Aztec Empire, precious things such as feathers, stones, and gold--known in the Nahuatl language as \u003ci\u003etlazohtli\u003c\/i\u003e--were central to their understanding of the material world and their place in it. \u003ci\u003eFlickering Creations\u003c\/i\u003e reconstructs the Indigenous Nahua genre of precious art, revealing the aesthetic concepts that informed how artists worked with these vibrant, living, and emotionally compelling materials. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this beautifully illustrated book, Allison Caplan presents new readings of major artworks of the Aztec Empire, drawing on Nahuatl alphabetic and glyphic writings to show how Nahuas of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries possessed their own art theory. She traces how key principles of precious art--\u003ci\u003etonalli\u003c\/i\u003e (solar animacy), \u003ci\u003eixnezcayotl\u003c\/i\u003e (appearance), *\u003ci\u003exiptli\u003c\/i\u003e (skin), and \u003ci\u003enechihchihualiztli\u003c\/i\u003e (assemblage)--indelibly shaped surviving masterpieces of feather, turquoise mosaic, and cast gold. Bridging art history, anthropology, linguistics, and literary studies, Caplan demonstrates how the creation and reception of exquisite works of precious art centered on activating and dynamically transforming their relationships to one another, their makers, their audience, and the wider world. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eProviding a model for engaging with Indigenous material culture on its own terms, \u003ci\u003eFlickering Creations\u003c\/i\u003e shows how this previously unrecognized body of theory unveils entirely new dimensions of artistry and meaning in Nahua art.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Allison Caplan\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0691280436\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780691280431\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Princeton University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/27\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 320\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover","brand":"Allison Caplan","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48874552295679,"sku":"9780691280431","price":65.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/flickering-creations-allison-caplan-9780691280431","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}