Central Mexico, Aztec style, 13th-16th century / 1325–1521
Seated Male Carrying Maize
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Seated Male Carrying Maize as sculpture (Central Mexico, Aztec style, 13th-16th century · 1325–1521).
Macuilxochitl is one of five gods of excess pleasure, and the punishment that follows.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this sculpture as stone, pigment.
The museum's collection notes: 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.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtSeated Male Carrying MaizeOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.