Head of Xochipilli-Macuilxochitl, God of Pleasure, Games and Music

ca. 1500

On view, 1st floor, Art of the Ancient Americas

As the Aztec Empire expanded outward in all directions from its capital at Tenochtitlán, imperial artists appropriated the art of vanquished peoples, incorporating captured styles and media into images of Aztec historical figures and deities. With the incursion into Veracruz, artisans adopted the local tradition of large-scale ceramic sculptures. This highly naturalistic ceramic head, with almond-shaped eyes and a slightly open mouth, once belonged to a full-figure sculpture; the figure would have been represented either in a seated or standing position. The center of the headdress, originally consisting of five vertical stalks (only three remain), is thought to symbolize the crest of a feathered eagle, marking this as the head of Xochipilli-Macuilxochitl, deity of music, flowers, song, and games.

Medium: Ceramic
Dimensions: 11 × 8 3/8 × 6 11/16 in. (27.9 × 21.3 × 17 cm)
Credit Line: Gift from the Estate of Alice M. Kaplan
Accession Number: 2001.83.1
Geography: Mexico
Culture: Mexico, Aztec
Period: Late Postclassic Period
Classification: Sculpture
Disclaimer: Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance

Reportedly excavated in November 1964 at Tres Zapotes, Veracruz; Walter Randel Collection, New York (1965);The Alice M. Kaplan Collection

Bibliography

Art for Yale: Collecting for a New Century, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2007), 190, 183–84, pl. 175, ill

Felipe Solis, ed., El Imperio Azteca: Obras de la exposicion, Spanish ed., exh. cat. (Bilbao, Spain: Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 2005), 15, no. 17

Felipe Solis, ed., The Aztec Empire: Catalogue of the Exhibition, exh. cat. (New York: Guggenheim Museum Publications, 2004), 72, no. 331, pl. 176

Felipe Solis, ed., The Aztec Empire, Curated by Felipe Solis, exh. cat. (New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 2004), 305, fig. 176

"Acquisitions 2001," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2002), 128, ill

Linda Bantel, The Alice M. Kaplan Collection, exh. cat. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), 48–49, fig. 17

Elizabeth Kennedy Easby and John F. Scott, Before Cortés, Sculpture of Middle America: A Centennial Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from September 30, 1970 through January 3, 1971, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1970), 298, no. 276, fig. 276

Pre-Columbian Art in New York: Selection from Private Collections, exh. cat. (New York: Museum of Primitive Art, 1969), fig. 93

Pre-Columbian Art of Latin America, exh. cat. (Ithaca, N.Y.: Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art, Cornell University, 1966), 28, fig. 65

Object copyright

No Copyright - United States

Additional information

Object/Work type

figures (representations), heads (representations), mythology, religious art

Technical metadata and APIs

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