A shimmering saint, St. John in featherwork

(soft piano music) - [Lauren] We're in the National Museum of Art in Mexico City, looking at a small image of St. John made out of feathers. - [Beth] This feather work, which was popular in the 16th century in New Spain, is a technique that was practiced prior to the conquest among peoples like the Aztecs and was very highly regarded and revered. - [Lauren] Feathers were part of indigenous art. We can think of the amazing iridescence of feathers. It makes sense that they would be an important material for artists. - [Beth] Think of the feathered headdress that's in the collections in Vienna that reportedly belonged to Moctezuma II. Usually when you think about feathers, you think about something that can move, like on a head dress, something that adds to the movement of the wearer and flickers in the light. But here it's applied to a piece of wood. We can't see through it. And yet there's still a tremendous amount of iridescence. - [Lauren] Feather workers, prior to that conquest by the Spaniards, were called amanteca. After the Spanish conquest in 1521, the Spaniards were so impressed by this technique that these feather workers continued to make these objects, but with Christian subject matter. And it's true, this remarkable technique of gluing feathers to a board is akin to a mosaic. - [Beth] Or stained glass window. The feathers act with the light very much the way that glass does or the way that precious stones do. - [Lauren] As we're standing here in the gallery we're looking at four different feather works. And if you bend down or try to stand above it, the colors change, the shimmer changes. It really captures nicely this iridescent, luminous quality of the feather work. - [Beth] We know that this is St John because he holds a chalice. He's got his right hand up in a gesture of blessing, and he's got this huge halo around his head. There's this border of geometric and floral motifs that almost does look like inlaid stone or inlaid gems. - [Lauren] The brilliance of the halo, the gold of the chalice is comparing to the brilliance of the feathers themselves. This idea of heaven and the glory of God as being colorful and luminescent is captured here in this material. - [Beth] The communication of the heavenly and the divine realm through the preciousness, through the luminosity of feathers. (soft piano music)