Maya - Language of Beauty
Touring exhibition of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), Mexico. Information and photo tour through the presentation in Berlin, 2016.
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Late Postclassic, 1250-1527 AD
Mayapán, Yucatán
Clay
INAH. Museo Nacional de Historia, Castillo de Chapultepec, Mexico City
Feathered Serpent
One of the most characteristic expressions of Mayapán ceramics were censers with deity effigies. This work shows Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent, an essential character in Mesoamerican iconography. With the arrival of Nahua groups to the Maya area, around AD 1000, the veneration of Quetzalcoatl, known to the Mayas as Kukulcan, was added to their religion. He can be recognized by the pectoral, cut from a snail shell, painted blue and outlined in yellow, hanging around his neck. In each of his hands, raised before him, he holds balls of copal incense.
© Photo: Haupt & Binder
Touring exhibition of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), Mexico. Information and photo tour through the presentation in Berlin, 2016.