YOUR NEXT DISCOVERY/ArtifactsFollow your curiosity

Central Mexico, Tlacuilapaxco apartment compound(?), Teotihuacán style, Classic Period / 500–550

Mural Fragment with Elite Male and Maguey Cactus Leaves

The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Mural Fragment with Elite Male and Maguey Cactus Leaves as painting (Central Mexico, Tlacuilapaxco apartment compound(?), Teotihuacán style, Classic Period · 500–550).

WHY IT’S INTERESTING

This fragment is from a larger composition that covered the walls of a patio at Teotihuacan.

SERENDIPITYA little unexpected

FamiliarWeird

A CLOSER LOOK

The museum identifies this painting as fresco on wall fragment.

The museum's collection notes: This richly dressed elite male belonged to a row of identical figures who processed along the walls of a patio in one of Teotihuacán’s wealthy apartment compounds. He offers a chant or prayer, materialized in a mouth scroll, along with a flower-filled libation that cascades from one hand. In the other hand, he carries an incense bag. The thorny spines of the maguey cactus, in front and behind, may allude to the offering of precious blood and a ritual beverage made from the cactus’s sap (pulque, a less refined form of tequila). The spines are thrust into objects that may represent bundles or plots of land.

FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE

The Cleveland Museum of ArtMural Fragment with Elite Male and Maguey Cactus Leaves

Original explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.