Cleveland Museum of Art

Seated Male Carrying Maize

Date

1325–1521

Medium

stone, pigment

Culture

Central Mexico, Aztec style, 13th-16th century

Department

Art of the Americas

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This figure probably represents an Aztec deity-either Macuilxochitl or Xochipilli-whose domain was beauty, the arts, and such pleasures as gameplaying, dancing, and sex. Both names include the Aztec word for "flower," and in one hand the figure holds a cone of flowers, perhaps the blossoming crown of a cactus. For the Aztecs, flowers signified beauty, refinement, and fertility in general and sexuality in particular. The burden of maize cobs on his back also may allude to his creative energies. Macuilxochitl is one of five gods of excess pleasure, and the punishment that follows.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.