Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

An urban center with an estimated population of over 125,000 in 600 CE, Teotihuacan, which lies about twenty-five miles northeast of Mexico City, was the sixth largest city in the world at that time. In terms of visual expression, Teotihuacan’s grandest achievement was its architecture; but this figure, a rare type in the Teotihuacan corpus, is a beautiful example on a more intimate scale that conveys the core Teotihuacan values of simplicity and understatement. Carved from stone and austere in form and decoration, the figure reflects the self-sacrifice, organization, and even rigidity that were characteristic of the great metropolis of Teotihuacan.

Though we do not know how this figure was used, in Teotihuacan iconography, upturned hands generally refer to the divine hand from which gifts and abundance flow. This was a favored pose for the depiction of both deities and members of the Teotihuacan elite.