Pre-Columbian, Vera Cruz, Mexico, ca. 400 to 700 CE. Such an amazing and disturbing piece that it is difficult to describe! A human head, with face painted black with the classic thick black color, chapapote, that was common to Veracruz artwork and was made from petroleum-rich deposits, wears another human face over it; this one with wide, black-rimmed cutouts for eyes and mouth. The "face mask" has dangling eyeballs and a well-sculpted nose with flaring nostrils; the skin sags slightly around the eyes. A large pair of medallions is attached to the top of the head. This is Xipe Totec, the Flayed One (sometimes translated as "The Owner of Skin"), or rather a priest ritually impersonating the deity. The original statue, a Remojadas, would have been a standing figure wearing a full skin suit, possibly shown with the hands and feet sagging from the body as in other known examples, and with the skin of the flayed body painted in yellows and greens to represent decay. Size: 7" W x 6" H (17.8 cm x 15.2 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.

Provenance: Ex-Huber collection

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#116974

Head is intact, although has been detached from a larger body and is broken (although stable) around the edges where the detachment occurred.