Aztec Stone Head of the Deity Xipe Totec, Postclassic, circa AD 1300 - 1521

Robert L. Stolper, Stolper Galleries, Munich
European Private Collection, acquired from the above by 1970 
Sotheby's, New York, November 22, 1999, lot 174, consigned by the above
Private Collection, acquired at the above auction

The Aztec had a deity for nearly all aspects of human nature. The sculpted representations of the gods in stone and ceramic were one of the primary Postclassic tributes. These sculptures decorated temples and were displayed during specific ceremonies.

Xipe Totec is one of the primary Aztec deities and epitomizes how dual forces compliment and imbue a patron with agency and strength. Xipe Totec is the deity of rebirth (our ‘flayed lord”) and was most closely associated with agricultural renewal. Xipe Totec was also the patron deity of goldsmiths, referencing the transformative power of creating beauty from inert substances.

Xipe is best epitomized by a snake shedding its skin or the butterfly born from a crystalis; the elements of life and death are literally layered on the dramatic sculptures of this deity. Here a secondary skin forms a mask over the head, with openings for the essential senses of sight and voice to be available. The mask extends over the ears and the top of the head, with a perforation in the three locations, likely for insertion of a perishable material. The remains of a coiffure are pulled tautly at the back of the head. The figure was encased like a seed, to be planted and reborn through the ritual of the Xipe Totec ceremony.  

For a complete Xipe figure found in the early 19^th century now in the Museum der Kulturen, Basel, (inv. no. IVb 647), with a highly similar head to the present subject, see Moctezuma and Olguin, Aztecs, London, 2002, p. 173, cat. no. 92, and p. 422.