STATUETTE AZTÈQUE DE XIPE TOTEC EN PIERRE VOLCANIQUE

Mexique, Culture Aztèque (ou Mexica), 1400-1520 ap. J.C.

Footnotes

Rare sculpture depicting a priest personifying the god Xipe Totec, standing and leaning against a pilaster, holding a shield in his left hand. He is covered with a second skin from a sacrificial victim, visible on his face. His loincloth with a tabbed belt is the one worn by warriors. He is adorned with long earrings hanging over his shoulders.

God of Spring and master of nature, Xipe Totec was associated with fertility, the regeneration of agricultural cycles, and war.
With the approach of this season, during the month of Tlacaxipehualiztli ("Flaying of Men"), the second month of the Aztec ritual calendar, priests sacrificed human victims by removing their hearts. They then flayed the bodies and wore the skins, which they dyed yellow and called teocuitlaquemitl ("garments of gold").

This festival, marking the sowing of maize, was one of the most important celebrations of the time. It was commonly held on two circular altars: one for the sacrifice of captives through gladiatorial or arrow combats, and the other for the flaying rites in honor of Xipe Totec. Our sculpture illustrates this ceremony, in which priests, dressed in the skins of the sacrificed, embodied the cycle of nature and rebirth, symbolizing the new vegetation covering the Earth in spring.

Exhibited
Exotic art, from ancient and primitive civilizations: collection of Jay C. Leff. Dept. of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15 Oct. 1959 to 3 Jan. 1960. Text by Walter A. Fairservis, Jr., nb. 596, illustrated.

Provenance
Former Jay Cleff Collection
Sotheby's, New York, October 11, 1975, Sale 3792, Lot 441
Sotheby's, New York, February 11, 1977, Sale 3951, Lot 107
Private collection, Belgium, acquired at the above. The purchase recorded in a 20th March 1986 insurance document.