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Mar 28, 2016

Mural Fragment with Elite Male and Maguey Cactus Leaves

500–550

Central Mexico, Tlacuilapaxco apartment compound(?), Teotihuacán style, Classic Period

Fresco on wall fragment

Overall: 83.2 x 116.2 cm (32 3/4 x 45 3/4 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1963.252

Location

233 Mesoamerican and Intermediate Region

Did you know?

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

Description

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.

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Provenance

?-1963

Black Tulip Gallery, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art

1963-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Berrin, Kathleen, and Clara Millon. Feathered Serpents and Flowering Trees: Reconstructing the Murals of Teotihuacán. [San Francisco, Calif.]: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1988. pp. 195-205

Lee, Sherman E. "Year in Review for 1963." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 50, no. 10 (1963). p. 291 www.jstor.org

Kubler, George. "The Iconography of the Art of Teotihuacán." Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology, no. 4 (1967). p. 4, 7-8 , fig. 17 www.jstor.org

Miller, Arthur G. The Mural Painting of Teotihuacán. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1973. p. 36-37, 170, fig. 366

Millon, René. Urbanization at Teotihuacán, Mexico. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1973. p. 33-36, 121, fig. 48b

Young-Sánchez, Margaret. "Veneration of the Dead: Religious Ritual on a Pre-Columbian Mirror-Back." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77, no. 9 (1990) p. 328, fig. 4 www.jstor.org

Mexican Art Abroad. (Mexico: Groupo Azabache S.A. de C.V, 1994).

México en el mundo de las colecciones de arte. [México, D.F.]: [El Gobierno de la República], 1994. . p. 84

Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. New York, NY: Abrams, 1995. p. 145

Gardner, Helen, Richard G. Tansey, and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner's Art Through the Ages. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1996.

Turner, J. S. The Dictionary of Art. New York: Grove, 1996.

Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. [Place of publication not identified]: Prentice Hall, 2001.

Honour, Hugh, and John Fleming. A World History of Art. London: Laurence King, 1999.

Honour, Hugh, and John Fleming. A World History of Art. London: Laurence King, 2002. p. 522, fig. 12.3

Stokstad, Marilyn, David Cateforis, and Stephen Addiss. Art History. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2005. . fig. 12-7

Honour, Hugh, and John Fleming. A World History of Art. London: Laurence King, 2005. p. 509, fig. 12.3

Hernaez, Gerardo A. Ramirez and Esmeralda Reynoso Camacho. The Skin of Teotihuacan. (Arts and Cultures, 2008). p. 116, fig. 13

Wilkins, David G., Bernard Schultz, and Katheryn M. Linduff. Art Past, Art Present. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education, 2008.

Bray, Warwick, and David H. Trump. The Penguin Dictionary of Archaeology. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972.

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{{cite web|title=Mural Fragment with Elite Male and Maguey Cactus Leaves|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1963.252|year=500–550|access-date=02 November 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Mural Fragment with Elite Male and Maguey Cactus Leaves

Mural Fragment with Elite Male and Maguey Cactus Leaves

Central Mexico, Tlacuilapaxco apartment compound(?), Teotihuacán style, Classic Period

Location

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