Mask of Mictlantecuhtli, Lord of the Underworld

This wood mask represents Mictlantecuhtli, the Mexica god of the underworld, called Mictlán. In Mexica myth, the gods Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca created the world and placed Mictlantecuhtli and his wife Mictecacihuatl in Mictlán.

The Mexica people, rulers of the Aztec Empire, believed that people who die from most illnesses and other natural causes journey to Mictlán after death. They embark on a four-year journey full of trials. Once they reach Mictlán, they disappear from existence.

As this mask demonstrates, Mictlantecuhtli was frequently depicted in a skeletal form and is associated with human skulls. Mask-wearing was an important part of many precolonial Mesoamerican religious rituals, though few of these masks exist today. Scholars think worshippers would have tied it to a statue or wood figure representing the deity for ceremonial use.

This panel is a mask of the skeletal face of Mictlantecuhtli, Lord of the Underworld and deity associated with the dead in Aztec belief.Throughout Mesoamerica, the wearing of masks was central to the performance of religious rituals and reenactments of myths and history. The face is the center of identity, and by changing one's face, a person can transcend the bounds of self, social expectations, and even earthly limitations. In this transformed state, the human becomes the god, supernatural being or mythic hero portrayed. Masks of skeletal heads, whether human or animal, are relatively common, for death played a central role in Mexica religion. Death was one of the twenty daysigns of the Mexican calendar, indicating its essential place in ...