More Pre-Columbian and Mayan Art

Size: 13"H x 19"W (33 x 48cm)
Item Type: wall plaque
Material: cultured marble
Weight (lbs): 12
Price: $166.00
Product Code: P-11

His father Pacal stands on the other side, dressed in burial apparel. Pacal holds the insignia of royal power, the passing of authority will occur at the end of ten days of accession rites. In the center we see a variant of the Tree of Life formed by a maize plant rising from a band of water and the Kan-cross Waterlily Monster, which symbolizes the waters of the earth as the source of life. In the crown of the tree sits a huge water bird wearing the mask of the Celestial Bird.

The branches of the tree are ears of maize manifested as human heads since in Maya tradition, human flesh was made from maize dough. Pacal is shown giving to his son a personified bloodletter, an instrument for bloodletting rituals and vision quests. It drew the blood of the King and brought on the trance that opened the portal to Shivalva (the Maya underworld) and brought forth the Gods.
 

The bowl held on the chests of Chac Mools were receptacles for offerings; in one Aztec example, the bowl held by the Chac Mool was a receptacle for the hearts of sacrificial victims. Chac Mools may symbolize fallen warriors who deliver offerings to the gods.

The original of this Chac Mool is located in a wide platform in front of the entrance to the Temple of the Warriors in Chichen Itza; it is positioned between two large splendidly carved feathered serpent columns that symbolize the god Kukulcan. The term Chac Mool was coined by the 19th century explorer Augustus LePlongeon, and it literally means great jaguar paw in Yucatec Mayan.
 

P-003S Aztec Moon Goddess (Coyolxauhqui)

Size: 11" H
(28cm)
Type: Wall Plaque
Material: Hydrostone
Finish: Antique Stone Finish
Price: $98

In a mythical representation of the triumph of the sun over the powers of night personified by Coyolxauhqui as a lunar goddess, she is shown decapitated and dismembered after she was slain by her brother, the Sun God, Huitzilopochtli. Here, bells decorate her cheek, and in accordance with her ferocious image, she wears a skull on her belt and serpent armbands with claws attached. 
 

P-004S Head of Maya King Pacal

Size: 10.5" H
(27cm)
Type: Wall Plaque
Material: Hydrostone
Finish: Antique Stone Finish
Price: $62

P-013S Olmec

Size: 8.25" H
(21cm)
Type: Statue
Material: Hydrostone
Finish: Antique Stone Finish
Price: $162

La Venta, Mexico. 1000B.C.

At La Venta, these four colossal heads were set as if to guard the ceremonial core of the site, three to the south and one to the north, all with their backs to the architecture.

P-012S Toltec Atlantean Warrior

Size: 14.5" H
(37cm)
Type: Statue
Material: Hydrostone
Finish: Antique Stone Finish
Price: $138

Tula and Chitchen Itza were the main cities of the Toltec civilization which flourished between 900 A.D. and 1168 A.D. The Toltecs were a highly militaristic and ritualistic society composed of many warrior castes who were skilled metallugists and who practiced ritual sacrifice and cranial deformations. The Toltecs mysteriously disappeared in the 11th century. These columns represent Toltec warriors or possibly Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, the plumed serpent in his guise as the morning star.

The Four 15 foot tall columns show identical warriors carved from basalt who are richly atired and dressed for battle, wearing feathered headdresses, rectangular ear pieces, a belt that clasps in the rear with a large mirror, a necklace, bracelets, anklets and sandals decorated with plumed serpents. Over the chest they wear a vest with the butterfly blazon, the Toltec warrior's emblem. In their left hands, they hold a bunch of curved arrows, and in the right hands they hold an atlatl (a curved spear or arrow thrower) a weapon not seen anywhere else.