Xochipilli, Prince of Flowers
Fifteenth to early sixteenth century
A young god sits cross legged on a square throne, head thrown back, mouth open and eyes half closed as if in a trance. His whole body is covered in carved flowers, and the throne repeats them. He is Xochipilli, the Flower Prince, god of music, dance, games, poetry and the pleasures that lie a little beyond the ordinary. The face is a mask, held on by cords visible at the back of the head, so that you are watching a performer rather than the god himself.
The flowers are the key. Botanists have identified several of them as plants with mind altering properties: the morning glory whose seeds were used in divination, a mushroom cap, tobacco and possibly the sinicuichi flower. The god's clenched toes and tense posture, combined with the rapt expression, have led many scholars to read the statue as the image of ecstatic trance, whether from song or from sacred plants. Look at the fine carving of the sandals, the jaguar skin drape and the beaded ornaments on the arms, all done in hard basalt with stone tools.
The statue was found in the nineteenth century on the slopes of the volcano Popocatepetl, near Tlalmanalco, an area with a strong tradition of poetry and festival in Mexica times. It entered the national collection early and became a favourite of modern Mexican artists, who saw in it a native image of creativity. When the present museum opened in nineteen sixty four it was placed in the Mexica hall as a counterweight to the grim sacrificial monuments nearby. It remains one of the most tender objects in a room dominated by power.
Did You Know? Some of the flowers carved on the god's skin have been identified as hallucinogenic plants, which is why he is sometimes called the god of ecstasy.
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