The work is a portion of a frescolike wall painting from an apartment compound in the ancient Mexican city of Teotihuacan. In the first millennium CE, residents of Teotihuacan lived in large apartment compounds, many of which were extensively decorated with wall paintings. The current example is probably one of at least eight similar images that once formed the decoration of an interior room in the compound known as Techinantitla from the east side of the city.
The fragment shows a highly abstract depiction of what may be a deity, or perhaps even an elaborate, undeciphered hieroglyphic logogram (a sign representing a word). The symmetry of the figure and the location of a toothed mouth and clawed hands suggest a stylized anthropomorphic being. From the mouth emerges scrolls covered in images of flowers, perhaps a visual representation of "flowery speech" or benevolent oration. The figure is covered in circular and ovular shapes painted green—mostly likely images of jade beads—and fringed with green feathers; both greenstone and green feathers were luxurious imported materials. The green color evokes water, maize plants, and agricultural fertility.
A similar fragment is in the collections of the Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts, and a fragment of the same mural series in the Ethnological Museum in Berlin includes a border that repeats the jade and feathered motifs. Not all aspects of the mural's central character are flowery and green, however: the fearsome claws at the center of the image hint at the threat of potential violence by natural forces divine power, or Teotihuacan’s own military regime.
Mural Teotihuacan artist(s) 500–550 CE
The work is a portion of a frescolike wall painting from an apartment compound in the ancient Mexican city of Teotihuacan. In the first millennium CE, residents of Teotihuacan lived in large apartment compounds, many of which were extensively decorated with wall paintings. The current example is probably one of at least eight similar images that once formed the decoration of an interior room in the compound known as Techinantitla from the east side of the city.
The fragment shows a highly abstract depiction of what may be a deity, or perhaps even an elaborate, undeciphered hieroglyphic logogram (a sign representing a word). The symmetry of the figure and the location of a toothed mouth and clawed hands suggest a stylized anthropomorphic being. From the mouth emerges scrolls covered in images of flowers, perhaps a visual representation of "flowery speech" or benevolent oration. The figure is covered in circular and ovular shapes painted green—mostly likely images of jade beads—and fringed with green feathers; both greenstone and green feathers were luxurious imported materials. The green color evokes water, maize plants, and agricultural fertility.
A similar fragment is in the collections of the Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts, and a fragment of the same mural series in the Ethnological Museum in Berlin includes a border that repeats the jade and feathered motifs. Not all aspects of the mural's central character are flowery and green, however: the fearsome claws at the center of the image hint at the threat of potential violence by natural forces divine power, or Teotihuacan’s own military regime.