Seated Deity
1350–1519
- Medium
- gray volcanic stone with red pigment
- Dimensions
- Overall: 37.5 x 20.3 x 24.8 cm (14 3/4 x 8 x 9 3/4 in.)
- Genre
- sculpture
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Styles
Tags
Mexico, Aztec, Valley of Mexico near Teotihuacan, Macuilxochitl (?), 14th-16th century
About
The crested headdress with tassels suggests that this youthful, seated male is Macuilxochitl (Five Flower), an Aztec supernatural patron of many forms of pleasure, among them music, dance, feasting, games, and sex. His cult was popular among common people, and this effigy probably was created for use in a small neighborhood temple. The stone surface could have been plastered and then brightly painted.