A monumental Veracruz Figural Incensario of a Deity, Postclassic, ca. A.D. 900-1200

in dramatic posture with taloned feet and hands, skeletal head with bulging eyes and toothy mouth, the limbs showing longbones, and skirt pulled taut over the raised knees.

Stendahl Gallery, 1970s

Hasso von Winning, Pre-Columbian Art of Mexico and Central America, New York, 1968, fig. 260

These large hollowed figures were placed over smoking incense, providing dramatic effect, especially by depicting the god of death, Mictlantecuhtli. There is a creation myth describing Quetzalcoatl capturing loose bones from a reluctant Mictlantecuhtli, for their reuse in creating new clans (Miller and Taube 1993:113); see also Nicholson (1971: figs. 124-125), for the type.