The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of March 29, 2024
Mural Fragment with Elite Male and Maguey Cactus Leaves
500–550
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.- ?-1963Black Tulip Gallery, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art1963-The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- 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. 195-205Lee, Sherman E. "Year in Review for 1963." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 50, no. 10 (1963). p. 291 www.jstor.orgKubler, 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.orgMiller, Arthur G. The Mural Painting of Teotihuacán. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1973. p. 36-37, 170, fig. 366Millon, René. Urbanization at Teotihuacán, Mexico. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1973. p. 33-36, 121, fig. 48bYoung-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.orgMexican 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. 84Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. New York, NY: Abrams, 1995. p. 145Gardner, 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. 12.3Stokstad, Marilyn, David Cateforis, and Stephen Addiss. Art History. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2005. . fig. 12-7Honour, Hugh, and John Fleming. A World History of Art. London: Laurence King, 2005. p. 509, fig. 12.3Hernaez, Gerardo A. Ramirez and Esmeralda Reynoso Camacho. The Skin of Teotihuacan. (Arts and Cultures, 2008). p. 116, fig. 13Wilkins, 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.
- {{cite web|title=Mural Fragment with Elite Male and Maguey Cactus Leaves|url=false|author=|year=500–550|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1963.252