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This essay explores the "statue of a feminine divinity," a huastec sculpture depicting the goddess tlazolteotl. It delves into the goddess's multifaceted nature, encompassing fertility, purification, and her role in aztec society. The essay examines the historical context of the sculpture, its significance to the huastec and aztec cultures, and the rituals associated with tlazolteotl's worship.
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Park University Response to Statue of a Feminine Divinity AR 215: Art History I Dec 5, 2021 For our honeymoon, my husband and I went to Paris, France in 2017. During our stay, we visited several museums, Notre Dame cathedral (before it was burned down to the ground by an electrical fire) and the Palace of Versailles. One of the museums we visited was the Quai Branly
Museum (Musée du quai Branly) and there we saw a sculpture titled the “Statue of a Feminine Divinity.” The Statue of a Feminine Divinity The sculpture, made of stone, measures 1.9 feet (600 mm) wide, 6.7 feet (2000 mm) in height, and 12 inches (300 mm) in depth (Google, 2021). The sculpture is carved standing with simple lines and a full face that emerges from the jaw of a monster framed by two snakes (Google, 2021). The rigid “naked breasts and the hands on the stomach symbolise fertility, while a smooth skirt is wrapped around the lower part of [the body]” (Google, 2021). The creator is unknown, but its origin can be traced back to the Huastec people who were conquered by the Aztecs sometime around the1450 (Warner, 2014). Figure 1: The Statue of a Feminine Divinity Tlazolteotl Despite the notion that the Huastec people feared that they or their families would be punished if they sculptured their gods without a proper sacrifice, they erected statues of their
with sincerity and contrition, after which the priest would prescribe a fast for the purification of the body” (Mingren, 2018). The penitent would also choose his or her self-sacrifice to perform “ranging from fasts to presentation of offerings and ritual song and dance, depending on the nature and the severity of the sin” (Mingren, 2018; Sahagun, 1961). After the task was complete, “the penitent would go to the temple of Tlazolteotl, where he or she prayed and lay naked on the floor on a black painted paper for a night” (Mingren, 2018). The ritual ended the following morning, when the penitent woke up reborn and purified; it was believed that the goddess devoured their sins, thus purifying them and preparing them for the afterlife (Mingren, 2018). Figure 2: Statue of Tlazolteotl In addition to the act of purification, Tlazolteotl was also the goddess of fertility and was considered the patroness of midwives (Mingren, 2018; Warner, 2014). In sculptures of the goddess, Tlazolteotl is portrayed as a woman giving birth to a baby, which makes sense when one interprets the filth that she consumes to be organic matter, and that her connection to
childbirth is symbolic of new life (Mingren, 2018). Lastly, the goddess is also believed to be linked to the agriculture of cotton because in certain depictions of the goddess, Tlazolteotl wears a headdress that appears to contain two spindles of unspun cotton (Mingren, 2018). The connection between Tlazolteotl and cotton derives from the notion that this plant was planted in huge quantities by the Huastec people (Mingren, 2018). Wun Mingren (2018), a researcher in Ancient History and Archaeology, suggests the connection between Tlazolteotl and cotton because “woven cotton textiles were important as a medium of exchange, and therefore the spinning of cotton and the weaving of textiles were important activities (incidentally, carried out mainly by women) that required a goddess to oversee.” Analyzing the “Statue of a Feminine Divinity” and researching its origin was very interesting. The conquering of the Huastecs by the Aztecs made it difficult to locate the specific date the statue was sculpted or its creator. The statue signifies to me that fertility was important to both groups of people because the Huastec erected them throughout their territory and the Aztecs later adopted Tlazolteotl as their own goddess of fertility. In conclusion, the Huastecs and Aztecs held fertility in high regard because giving birth during that era resulted in the fatality of many women and children. Without the medical knowledge and technology today, these cultures would pray to Tlazolteotl in hopes of eliminating the complications at birth. Works Cited: Bernardino de Sahagun (1961). Florentine Codex: History of the Things of New Spain. Salt Lake
