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Seated Deity
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
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.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineSeated Deity, 1350–1519. Mexico, Aztec, Valley of Mexico near Teotihuacan, Macuilxochitl (?), 14th-16th century. Gray volcanic stone with red pigment; overall: 37.5 x 20.3 x 24.8 cm (14 3/4 x 8 x 9 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James C. Gruener, 1990.136
