gems, color science, color theory, art, anthropology, history of color, Mesoamerica, Mexico, Guatemala, Maya, Aztec, Olmec

The research presented in this dissertation examines the nature and distinctive character of the relationships that the Nahuas of ancient Mexico maintained with colour, based on the representations and practices they developed around this multifaceted phenomenon. The first part attempts to reconstruct their conception of colour, colouredness, and polychromy by investigating the lexicon and its multiple meanings, then the place accorded to colours in art, and finally the significance of variegation in cosmology and mythology. The second part studies Nahua colour terminology. Its aim is to rediscover how they organized the coloured world into categories and to identify their colour preferences, as well as to recover the sensations and connotations associated with particular colours. The final section focuses on the polychrome paintings that adorned the bodies of members of the pantheon of this pre-Columbian society, examining them from the dual perspectives of their materiality and the visual effects they generated. It reveals the complexity of the values that the Nahuas assigned to colouring substances, while highlighting the role played by chromatic assemblages in expressing the principle of complementarity that structured pre-Hispanic systems of thought.