Pre-Columbian, Valley of Mexico, Aztec culture, ca. 1200 to 1532 CE. A pottery humanoid form that depicts a de-fleshed man with remaining musculature and genitalia. The disembodied head presents with bulging eyes that peer forward with a haunting stare, an exposed nasal cavity flanked with striated, rectangular cheek muscles, a narrow mouth with a partial tongue centered between the lips, and exposed ear canals on the sides. The body is further defleshed showing back rib cage and spinal column. This is a representation of Xipe Totec, the Aztec god of flaying. Size: 5.5" W x 9.75" H (14 cm x 24.8 cm)

Human sacrifice, and specifically the ritual flaying and dismemberment of human sacrifices, were crucial components of the religious practices that marked the passage of Mesoamerican time. Worship of Xipe Totec required the death by arrow of multiple victims every year to spread their blood into the soil and renew the agricultural cycle; these victims were then flayed and had their skin fashioned into suits by priests to be worn during other rituals in honor of the god. These skin suits were worn until they dropped away, rotting, revealing the living man beneath. Xipe Totec was not the only god who required flaying for his worship in this pantheon; for example, we know that flaying of female victims occurred during the festival of Tlazeolteotl. This sculpture provides us a glimpse of a truly lost past world.

This piece has been tested using thermoluminescence (TL) analysis and has been found to be ancient and/or of the period stated. A full report will accompany purchase.

Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection; ex-private Dave DeRoche collection, Piedmont, California, USA, collected from 1970 to today

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#161417

Fingers of left hand reattached, fingers of right hand restored. Once part of a lidded two-piece vessel, base now missing.