Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

This vessel depicts an old man with a wrinkled face, beard, earspools, and a nearly toothless mouth. The combination of these attributes typically allows for the identification of the Old Fire God, known to the Aztecs as Huehuetéotl, which means “old, old deity." In one of their creation myths, he was considered the ultimate creator, mother and father of gods and people. Though we cannot be certain the Old Fire God had the same associations for earlier peoples, the consistency of his depictions over time and the Aztec acknowledgment of his antiquity suggest that his essence remained constant. The worship of the Old Fire God dates from the Formative Period through the Post-Classic.

There is one issue with the identification of this head as belonging to the Old Fire God. That is, he is usually depicted seated with a brazier on his head. Some have suggested that as this head does not depict a brazier, it instead simply depicts an old man. Others have suggested that the characteristics listed above were so deeply associated with the Old Fire God that the depiction of the brazier was not necessary.