Featured Mexican figure ~

I think leaves on the body, for spring. Skin covers his face.

Drew's figure doesn't have a face covering.

 

I’ll send an image to a mesoamerican dealer bud and see if i can get a definitive answer to the derivation of the figure.

 

Pic sent and hopefully I’ll get an answer and again apologies but i’m more upset that I’ve told so many people over the years that similar projectiles represented flayed skin as that’s what I was taught. It’s not appropriate for me to post my source so you can take their answer as hearsay but I’m going to a personal friend who's a highly respected PC dealer with a B&M gallery in a major US city so I personally trust their take on all things PC but my misinformation is from a curator so I’m upset.

 

Bear in mind that all of these interpretations of pre-columbian art are just that - interpretations (educated guesses). There are few if any written sources from the original makers explaining their iconography. And in this case we are likely dealing with a modern artisan's recreation (and probably pastiche) of pre-columbian Mesoamerican styles.

 

Haven’t heard back but did want to clarify that when a figure does wear a flayed skin it is not just on the face. I can’t believe this replica has so strongly motivated me LOL but know I really want to know what it is.

Xipe Totec is represented wearing flayed human skin, usually with the flayed skin of the hands falling loose from his wrists so not just on his face.

I completely agree that it’s a contemporary pastiche but i think the feathering is a definite historic reference and i hope to get a answer from someone I respect as expert in this specific area (not that anyone else should accept this) as to whether the patterning represents leaves, feathers, skin or something else as I do believe it’s specific.

 

Just got an answer and here’s where I’m going-apologies and kudos as always to AJ.

I think they could be skin tabs but I think these are feathers.

 

Thanks to all for the dialogue...... fascinating history of an amazing, sometimes unclear culture.

 

I agree.

 

You're right, the figurine I posted in #19 is wearing an almost complete skin, including genitals. I have seen Xipe Totec representations wearing a complete skin, with hands and feet dangling from the skin. The object was to wear a complete outside of a human body, giving the impression of the deceased human.

It just got under your skin, didn't it.

No apologies needed, not at all. It is good to bounce ideas off each other, and give the 'little grey cells' something to work on.

My father traveled extensively through Latin America for his job, and always brought back examples of local culture. Anything from pre-Columbian artifacts (when it was still legal), to costumes and jewellery, to boxes full of records.
My brother and I grew up listening to the songs and the stories, and being surrounded by pre-Columbian art. We both wanted to become archaeologists and read every book on the ancient cultures of the Americas we could find.
When we were in our teens we traveled to Latin America as a family, and our fascination and love only grew.

It always warms my heart when I get the opportunity to delve into a subject like this, an old love, connected with nice childhood memories.
So thank you @Drew for posting the figurine, and thank you @reader for giving me an incentive to dig in my memory to find some dormant information.

 

Yikes! For a split second, that face reminded me of SHAKESPEARE!

 

It is the high forehead.

 

My recent inspiration and interest in these artisan pieces (all my budget will allow) must come from a good friend of my fathers who was a somewhat wild and very entertaining collector/dealer in real pre Columbian pieces - Bill Pearson, at 5'2" 110 lbs. held court at our house in the 1960's. Once you met him, you'd never forget him !

 

Fabulous! Always loved the ancient world too and grew up with uncles and a grandfather who were dealers. Art history major here with a Classics minor and wanted to be Howard Carter-fell a little short LOL Actually dropped out in my first semester of grad school after getting overwhelmed with both ancient Greek and Latin at once!

 

I know the feeling, I had to study both when I studied theology. Somehow most of it was erased from my memory, self-preservation probably.

 

His moustache may actually be some kind of ritual piercing.