Seated Deity

Description

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.

Provenance

(Black Tulip Galleries, Inc., Dallas, TX, sold to James C. and Florence C. Gruener) (?-1958); James C. [1903-1990] and Florence C. Gruener [1908-1982], Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art (1958-1990); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1990-)

Seated Deity

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1350–1519

Accession Number

1990.136

Medium

gray volcanic stone with red pigment

Dimensions

Overall: 37.5 x 20.3 x 24.8 cm (14 3/4 x 8 x 9 3/4 in.)

Classification

Sculpture

Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Credit Line

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James C. Gruener