Veracruz Standing Xipe Totec Figure with Flayed Skin MaskPre-Columbian, Mexico,...
Veracruz Standing Xipe Totec Figure with Flayed Skin MaskPre-Columbian, Mexico, Veracruz, ca. 600–900 CE. A standing male figure of buff-salmon ceramic, hand-modeled and hollow, personifying Xipe Totec, the Flayed Lord, who wears the skin of a sacrificial victim over his own body and face. The borrowed hide reads as a slack second surface, its mask pierced by lidded slit eyes and a gaping mouth aperture through which the wearer's lips emerge. Regalia is crisply applied: outsized loop earspools, a double strand of stamped disc beads, crossed sashes over the chest, and a paneled kilt worn above the exposed phallus. Traces of dark pigment survive on the brow and punctate coiffure. Such figures likely served in mortuary or temple contexts tied to the agricultural renewal rites the god governed. Size: 7" W x 16.25" H (17.8 cm W x 41.3 cm H).
Xipe Totec, "Our Lord the Flayed One," presided over springtime regeneration, seedtime, and the renewal of the maize crop. His cult, attested from the Gulf Coast through central Mexico and later canonized by the Mexica, centered on the festival of Tlacaxipehualiztli, during which captives were sacrificed and their skins worn for twenty days by impersonators until the hides dried and were shed. The metaphor is agricultural rather than merely grisly: the loosened skin was the husk of the seed, the impersonator the green shoot beneath. Gulf Coast potters rendered the conceit with unusual clarity, layering a second modeled epidermis over the figure's own and leaving the true mouth visible within the mask, exactly as here.
Provenance: Ex. Collection of Jerome Grunes, MD. Chicago, acquired 1970’s. To family by descent.
SHIPPING: We coordinate worldwide shipping in-house through specialist international forwarders experienced with fine art and antiquities customs manifests. International buyers must confirm, prior to bidding, that their country's customs authority will accept the item. All duties, taxes, clearance fees, and any costs arising from customs delays, seizures, re-export, returns, or loss in transit are the buyer's sole responsibility. Artemis assumes no liability for items refused entry, detained, or lost after export. We cannot ship ancient items to their country of origin (Egyptian to Egypt, Greek to Greece, etc.).
PAYMENT EXCEPTION: For clients not previously established with Artemis, payment for all gold, precious metal, and gemstone lots must be made by bank wire transfer or certified bank check/money order, without exception.
Item #73043Missing his right arm, head reattached and his body has been repaired from approximately seven original pieces, with some restoration to his sash. Left foot, right earring, and four skirt panels are restored.
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Veracruz Standing Xipe Totec Figure with Flayed Skin MaskPre-Columbian, Mexico, Veracruz, ca. 600–900 CE. A standing male figure of buff-salmon ceramic, hand-modeled and hollow, personifying Xipe Totec, the Flayed Lord, who wears the skin of a sacrificial victim over his own body and face. The borrowed hide reads as a slack second surface, its mask pierced by lidded slit eyes and a gaping mouth aperture through which the wearer's lips emerge. Regalia is crisply applied: outsized loop earspools, a double strand of stamped disc beads, crossed sashes over the chest, and a paneled kilt worn above the exposed phallus. Traces of dark pigment survive on the brow and punctate coiffure. Such figures likely served in mortuary or temple contexts tied to the agricultural renewal rites the god governed. Size: 7" W x 16.25" H (17.8 cm W x 41.3 cm H).
Xipe Totec, "Our Lord the Flayed One," presided over springtime regeneration, seedtime, and the renewal of the maize crop. His cult, attested from the Gulf Coast through central Mexico and later canonized by the Mexica, centered on the festival of Tlacaxipehualiztli, during which captives were sacrificed and their skins worn for twenty days by impersonators until the hides dried and were shed. The metaphor is agricultural rather than merely grisly: the loosened skin was the husk of the seed, the impersonator the green shoot beneath. Gulf Coast potters rendered the conceit with unusual clarity, layering a second modeled epidermis over the figure's own and leaving the true mouth visible within the mask, exactly as here.
Provenance: Ex. Collection of Jerome Grunes, MD. Chicago, acquired 1970’s. To family by descent.
SHIPPING: We coordinate worldwide shipping in-house through specialist international forwarders experienced with fine art and antiquities customs manifests. International buyers must confirm, prior to bidding, that their country's customs authority will accept the item. All duties, taxes, clearance fees, and any costs arising from customs delays, seizures, re-export, returns, or loss in transit are the buyer's sole responsibility. Artemis assumes no liability for items refused entry, detained, or lost after export. We cannot ship ancient items to their country of origin (Egyptian to Egypt, Greek to Greece, etc.).
PAYMENT EXCEPTION: For clients not previously established with Artemis, payment for all gold, precious metal, and gemstone lots must be made by bank wire transfer or certified bank check/money order, without exception.
Item #73043Missing his right arm, head reattached and his body has been repaired from approximately seven original pieces, with some restoration to his sash. Left foot, right earring, and four skirt panels are restored.
Estimate
Reserve
Time, Location
Auction House
