Seated Figure Wearing a Skin, 600-1000. This type of image-showing a human clothed in a sacrificial victim’s skin, visible around the mouth and wrists-is one of the most awesome created by Mesoamerican artists. The figure represents the deity Xipe Totec or a human impersonator. Among the later Aztecs, Xipe was associated with fertility, rain, and renewal. Perhaps the wearer, upon shedding the skin, was conceived as a sprout emerging from a withered husk. Xipe also had military connections.

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Size: 3502px × 5000px
Photo credit: © Heritage Images / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 7th-11th, art, century, cleveland, coast, earthenware, gulf, heritage, mexico, museum, sculpture, slip, unknown