Xipe Totec mask

Mask of Xipe Totec, Aztec-Mexica, c. 1325-1521 CE, metamorphic rock, height 10.2 cms., Musée du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, Paris.

This piece shows the figure of a person covered by the skin mask of a sacrificial victim. It follows the canons of Mexica sculpture in representing the human face: generally oval in shape, vertical and parallel lines for the hair with a clear parting in the middle. The ears are rendered realistically, with perforated lobes. The brow bones are marked out by two prominent recesses, while the eyes are figured as two elliptical cavities...

Translated from From Mexica: Des dons et des dieux au Templo Mayor, Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac, Paris, 2024, p. 57.

Photo by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore.