Santiago's Borgia Codex Project

01/12/2021

Half way in to Santiago’s Borgia project we are starting to see the main ceremonial designs come to life on a group of plaques.

18/11/2021

The details of the central ceremonies on the Borgia Codex are complex.
Getting the special details translated on these etched clay plaques are a major challenge.

27/10/2021

Update on Santiago’s Borgia Project……. Now directly from San Juan de Oriente!

27/10/2021

Finally here in San Juan de Oriente, Nicaragua with Santi Gutierrez.
Santiago has been work on the Borgia Codex project for almost 5 months now.
As the first group of primary sculptures come together the larger concept of the project is coming into focus.
We will have much more connection with Santiago over the next months to follow his steps more closely.
Here’s a look.

14/10/2021

Santiago’s Borgia Project is coming together.
Look for live updates upon my arrival to San Juan de Oriente next week!

03/08/2021

The decorative journey on Santiago’s first sculptures has begun.

We can now see the unique forms and polished color come together with the etched designs.

Thank you to the small group of sponsors who are helping us create this special body of work.

22/07/2021

Here is the lated video on the progress on Santiago’s Borgia project.
We get to see the transition from the raw forms to the polished layers of slip then color.
The beginning of the carving and etching is starting here.
Next video will be well into the decorative process where we can see the visual designs start to come to life.
Plan to do some subtitals soon.

Enjoy!

We got to see Santiago hand-building the large vessel here we get to see the polish and painting technique.Burnishing is an ancient method of polishing color...

21/07/2021

New updates on Santiago’s progress on the Borgia project.

We got to see Santiago hand building the the large vessel here we get to see the polish and painting technique.
Burnishing is a ancient method of polishing color and is a key element of decorating these pottery sculptures. No glaze!

09/07/2021

The Borgia Codex is a ancient narrative book made sometime around the year 1500ad in Central Mexico.
The text is linked to the Aztec culture, the most recent Mesoamerican society.
The codex has many ceremonial and calendar references that link back to both Olmec and more predominately Maya time periods.
Very few ancient texts of Mesoamerica survived the Spanish conquest of what we now refer to as Latin America.
The Borgia Codex, with its pictorial history of Gods, calendar cycles and dramatic ceremonies surrounding the movement of the night sky, particularly Venus, make it possibly the most impressive of the 12 codex documents to survive.
The Codex has been housed in the Vatican Library since the early 1800's. The journey the document took before arriving to the Vatican and much of its history is laid out on the Borgia Codex Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Borgia
Santiago's Borgia Codex project is not intended to be a replica of the ancient book.
Nor is the project an attempt to describe the complicated themes depicted in the book at an academic level.
Santiago is using the general concepts and themes of the book as a direction in decorating a body of hand built clay sculptures that present the codex in a new, exciting, compelling way.
In displaying the final work of Santiago's Borgia project the hope is that it will serve in both promotion of the powerful ancient text as well as the world class artistic talent of the artist.
https://www.amazon.com/Codex-Borgia-Full-Color-Restoration-Manuscript/dp/0486275698

06/07/2021

While the page for Santiago's Borgia Project is the main outlet for information on the project.
There will also be updates on our website:
The Blog - https://nicaceramicart.com/blogs/nica-ceramic-art-blog/santiagos-borgia-project-the-beginning
Santiago's Gallery Page - https://nicaceramicart.com/collections/santiago

Santiago's Borgia Project June 15, 2021 - June 15, 2022 Santiago Gutierrez from the indigenous pottery pueblo San Juan de Oriente, Nicaragua has initiated his Borgia Project. The project will allow Santiago to create a museum quality collection of work utilizing the themes of the Aztec Borgia Codex....