Page 560 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

for the placement of banners or banderoles, bags
of resin, or natural flowers.
The dress of this god is the maxtlatl (loincloth)
and a striking chest protector made of the skin of
a feline head showing the hollows of the eyes,
eyebrows, and fangs. The headdress is unique. It
consists of a kind of short cloak covering the head
and reaching the shoulders and is decorated with
four circles combined with four vertical bars (to-
nalli and tlapapalli), which are associated with the
heat of the sun and the color red and represent the
spring climate. The headdress has a row of small
feathers like short plumes. The god's face is
covered by an impressive mask, which, in the
original ritual, was probably made of wood with
holes for the god's eyes to be seen. One scholar
(Seler 1904, 821-822) has interpreted it as an
attribute of Xochipilli in his role as the deity pre-
siding over theatrical performances and dances
during which the performers were masked. The
mask with the line of the mouth curving down at
the corners gives a hardness to the god's expres-
sion. Unfortunately the nose is broken. The fig-
ure wears earrings whose circular shape was
probably intended to convey that they were made
of gold or jade. The bracelets are in the form of
knotted bands and jaguar skins with hanging
teeth, similar to the adornments on his ankles.
On one arm he wears cut shell jewelry.
The seat itself is a separate sculptural work. The
legs adopt the form of a fret and the upper section
of the throne is developed in the manner of a
flower corolla that borders the whole piece and
ends with a sequence of small discs that symbolize
the stamen and pistils of the flowers. On this part
of the seat there are also four circles like those of
the headdress. At the center of each of the four
faces of this almost cubic pedestal is a flower
worked in a naturalistic manner with extended
petals, and a butterfly drinks its nectar. The front
part of the throne can be identified by two butter-
flies at the two sides of the central flower, waiting
their turn to approach the plant. 381
The flowers and plant forms appearing in relief wind. The connection between the monkey and
on the base and on Xochipilli's body have been the MONKEY WITH WIND-GOD MASK the wind god may also be related to the Aztec
subject of a controversial analysis by the late R. creation myth. At the end of the second or third
Gordon Wasson (1980, 57-58), who proposed that Aztec age of mankind, depending on the source, the
andesite
the depictions include the powerful psychotropic 60 x 37 x 33 f23% x i4 /2 x 13) world was destroyed by a hurricane, and all man-
2
mushroom Psilocybe aztecorum, known to the kind, with the exception of a single couple,
Aztecs as flesh of the gods, along with flowers of CNCA—INAH—MEX, Museo National de became monkeys (see Nicholson 1983,127). The
tobacco and the hallucinogenic morning glory Antropologia, Mexico City direct association with the god Ehecatl is clear
Turbina corymbosa. because the monkey wears the characteristic half-
Despite the ravages of time the two separately This extraordinary and unique sculpture was mask in the form of a bird's beak that identifies
worked pieces of this sculpture conserve their discovered in 1969 during excavations for the the wind god. What is extraordinary about this
original red paint. F.S. and M.D.C. Mexico City subway at the corner of Calles Iza- piece is its lively contrapposto, one that clearly
zaga and Pino Suarez; it had been broken up in indicates dance and probably reflects the associa-
pre-Hispanic times and placed as a buried offering tion of a simian god with dancing and singing.
in front of a circular temple to the wind god, There are two serpents present, one coiled on the
Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl (Gussinyer 1969). base and ascending the right leg of the monkey,
The monkey was the main animal symbol of and the other forming its tail.
Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl, patron god of the wind. As The sculpture was once highly polychromed:
one of the most unpredictable animals, the mon- the body was painted black, with red used for
key was naturally associated with the restless the mask, part of the face, ears, and hands, and

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