Featured Mexican figure ~

Is the form of this newer figure at all historic to Mexico's history, or is it just a way off base creation ? He's made of terracotta and stands about a foot tall.

 

It has the flattened forehead of the Classic Maya. I don't know if there is a pre-Columbian Maya figurine like this. The moustache is highly unusual.

 

You can see some of the types of figures that may have provided inspiration here:

https://www.google.com/search?q=Jai...mg&ei=Jf-DYdmeJJixtAaZ1rT4Bg&bih=604&biw=1285

 

Or maybe this...

 

Back when SNL was funny!

 

" u people sure know how to suck it back........

& I can't stop laughing......................

 

I like this guy. He has real presence.

 

Haven't seen any similar pieces, man w/bird feathers. Though bird imagery is certainly seen in Mexican culture. Despite being a newer figure, he's got character, I like him.

 

I don’t think he’s wearing feathers. I think he’s wearing the flayed skin of a human sacrifice-charming as that image is.

 

I was thinking they were leaves...

 

Xipe Totec, the Aztec god of spring and regeneration, appears in many Mesoamerican cults. ... Meaning literally “our lord, the flayed one,” Xipe Totec is also associated with the arrival of spring, when the earth covers itself with a new coat of vegetation and exchanges its dead skin for a new one.

 

Why did the Aztecs wear human skin?

As a symbol of the new vegetation, Xipe Totec wore the skin of a human victim—the “new skin” that covered the Earth in the spring. ... During Tlacaxipehualiztli (“Flaying of Men”), the second ritual month of the Aztec year, the priests killed human victims by removing their hearts.

Gotta love those Aztecs!

 

Thanks for the information.... at the end of the day, this sounds accurate and follows the sorts of rituals their culture performed.

 

it’s definitely accurate. I had to look up the name of the god for you but I’ve seen many different representations of him wearing the flayed skin of the sacrificed victim. It was interesting to learn that the ritual was about regeneration of the land as my understanding had been that it was about honoring a defeated warrior and assimilating his power which apparently isn’t correct.

 

The Maya did all sorts of bloody things, but I don't know of any Xipe Totec priest-like ceremonies.
The figurine has a tail, so it is likely he is meant to represent a bird-like being. Eagle dancer? Quetzal dancer?

 

Great to have this clarification.

 

The last thing I ever want to do around here is give misinformation so apologies after being adamant if I’m wrong but every time I’ve ever seen those projectiles they’ve represented skin, not feathers although I did pull a drawing of a Xipe wearing feathers but not a sculpture. Do you folks think this statue at The Kimbell in Texas has similar work although not as stylized as the OP’s? This one is definitely flayed skin.

 

The flayed skin is on the face, which was often the case with Xipe Totec priests or Xipe Totec representations.
You can see how he has two mouths, the victim's on the surface layer of skin, and his own underneath that. The same with his eyes.
The text says about his body "vigorously articulated body covering.".
https://kimbellart.org/collection/ap-197939

I think in this case Xipe Totec is represented as wearing skin on his head, and leaves (spring) on his body. Death and rebirth, two aspects of Xipe Totec in one representation.

Drew's figurine has Maya features and Xipe Totec is Aztec, but it is possible the maker combined two cultures, of course. But the Maya head doesn't have an extra skin.

 

Warning:
Not for the faint-hearted, so look away if you can't stomach it.

This is how Xipe Totec priests looked when they wore a complete skin:


https://art.thewalters.org/detail/80166/xipe-totec-impersonator/

 

Is the figure wearing feathers or a flayed skin?