Ancient Sculptures in Mesoamerican Aztec Culture

Breanna Castaneda

Art History

Terry Long

Ancient Sculptures in Mesoamerican Aztec Culture

            I’ve always been captivated by ancient art forms. Fascination overcomes me and I’m consumed with intrigue and wonder when I see things like hieroglyphs and pictographs, ancient marble sculptures and paintings, shielded from harm in beautiful, grand display cases. Or when I see what’s been hidden in caves and entire cities buried beneath time and sand. There’s so much to learn from what they’ve left behind for us, there’s so much more to understand. My fascination with ancient discoveries has been most stimulated by ancient Aztec stone art.  Aztec stone sculpture is the culmination of a long Mesoamerican tradition of carving in stone. The Aztecs used materials made of volcanic rock and highly valued precious stones like jade to form sculptures of all shapes and sizes.

            Sculpture played a huge roll in the ancient Aztec culture. For one, sculptures were used to communicate concepts of religion. Many of the more accomplished sculptors carved large-scale monuments of Aztec gods for public arenas and sacred temples. The sculptures also participated in complex rituals, presented in the form of the god beckoned.

            The conventional production of sculpture work for Aztec sculptors consisted of presenting the subject in a frontal, head-on view with strict attention to symmetry. Female figures were majorly placed in the kneeling position with their hands placed on their knees. Male figures were more often posed sitting in an up-right position with their knees drawn up and arms crossed upon them.  The sculptors make no effort for distinction physically; most sculptures followed the same mold and were differentiated by their garment and adornments. However, some sculptures have been attributed with animal features like fangs, and claws, long locks of hair and skull faces- elements meant to instill fear in the viewer, instead their presence offers a small insight into the primal essence of the Aztec people and the brutality of survival. These attributes remind the viewers that the Aztec people were part of a fierce civilization, and like many of their deities, they had no mercy.

Statue of Coatlicue, the Aztec Earth Goddess

year unknown, stone

Cihuateotl, Aztec sculptors

15th-16th Century, stone

Image Source

"1,000,000 Unique Art Prints and Paintings." ART-PRINTS-ON-DEMAND.COM. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2013.

Cihuateotl, Aztec sculptors

early 1