Ritual Impersonator of the Deity Xipe Totec (1450–1500): Artwork and History

Ritual Impersonator of the Deity Xipe Totec (1450–1500) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Aztec (Mexica) Possibly central Veracruz, Mexico.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

As a god of the late dry season and early rainy season (May–June), Xipe Totec (“The Flayed One”) expresses regeneration. By the time of Spanish contact in 1519, the cult of this deity was widespread throughout Mesoamerica. This figure depicts a young male wearing the skin of a sacrificed victim, a primary symbolic aspect of rituals conducted during agricultural fertility ceremonies dedicated to this deity. The lines across the chest represent stitched seams where the skin was fastened. Like living seed within a dried husk, the deity impersonator embodies the relationship between death and the renewal of life.

Object facts

• Title: Ritual Impersonator of the Deity Xipe Totec
• Date: 1450–1500
• Artist attribution: Aztec (Mexica) Possibly central Veracruz, Mexico
• Place of origin: Veracruz state
• Medium: Ceramic and pigment
• Dimensions: H.: 58.4 cm (23 in.)
• Type: Sculpture
• Department: Arts of the Americas
• Reference number: 1960.905

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel A. Marx

View the original

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The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.