Aztecs had many types of art and artists like stone-workers, who carved statues; scribes, who painted hieroglyphs; potters, who would make pots; and feather-workers, who would create beautiful head dresses among other things.
The stone-workers would create statues from rocks and would create objects made from green jade, black obsidian, and crystals. Stone-workers were trained from an early age and the skills they learned were passed on from worker to worker. To carve a statue they would use simple tools made out of wood, rock and bone.
Jade Obsidian Bone
The scribes would draw the hieroglyphs that would record important things that had happened. The Aztecs would use vegetables, insects, shells, and jewels to create colors and oil would be added to make colors brighter.
The Aztec potters shaped the clay with their hands or carved it. They usually only used two colors. The designed pots were for the rich or the ruler.

The feathers that were used for things such as a head dress were made from tropical birds. The feathers were worked into designs. The Aztec feather workers would make clothing out of feathers from all sorts of tropical birds for the rich and royalty.
DID YOU KNOW that the Aztec Emporer Montezuma II's headdress was made from the feathers of over 250 birds???
The Aztecs art is probably best remembered through their architecture (buildings). They built pyramids for their great religious and government buildings.

1.) Did the Aztecs find art important? How do you know?
2.) What types of art did the Aztecs create?
3.) What did they use to create the artwork?
4.) What type of people collected the art?
5.) What was so special about Montezuma II’s headdress?
6.) How has this information helped you better understand the culture of the Aztecs?