The face of this young man wearing two emblems in his headdress is striking for its beauty, simplicity, and naturalism. The delicate carving is slightly smaller than life-sized. The face shows the unusual feature of having the eyes and upper teeth carved in the stone instead of being set with inlays. This mask represents Tezcatlipoca, the omnipotent deity of the Aztec pantheon, a God of war, destiny, sorcery, divination, and nocturnal aspects. Tezcatlipoca means “smoking mirror” in Nahuatl, and his name is frequently pictorialized with a round mirror and smoking volutes on the deity’s left foot, headdress, or, as on this mask, on his temples. The two mirrors carved here are accompanied by four balls of eagle down that symbolize sacrifice. This mask might once have been part of an offering. Perforated holes in its backside and earlobes might have been used to suspend it as an ornament or to attach it to an effigy of the deity or to a funerary bundle.

In Post-Classic Mexican imagery, mirrors appear alongside burning hearths or censers, representing places where fire is ignited and produces smoke. Also, mirrors appear in relation to water signs, probably related to water-filled bowls used for divinatory practices. The two smoking mirrors on Tezcatlipoca’s temples might refer to his divinatory powers. During Aztec times, rulers used obsidian mirrors to foretell the future and observe their subjects. The use of mirrors is part of a long-standing Mesoamerican tradition, and Maya elites probably used pyrite mirrors in a similar manner, as depicted on a vessel in the Dumbarton Oaks Collections (see PC.B.569).

On the back of the mask, the glyph ‘2 Reed’ is carved in low relief. The lack of a cartouche framing the glyph indicates that it refers to a day sign rather than a year date. The day ‘2 Reed’ was directly associated with Tezcatlipoca, as this name date marked his birth in the 260-day divinatory almanac. However, a double reading of the date could also be considered, relating the mask to the year 2 Reed, 1507, the year of a New Fire Ceremony (see PC.B.069).

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Bliss, Robert W. 1959 Pre-Columbian Art: The Robert Woods Bliss Collection. (Text and Critical Analyses by S. K. Lothrop, Joy Mahler and William F. Foshag).  2nd edition ed. Phaidon Publishers Inc, London, distributed by Garden City Books, New York. p. 250-251, cat. 57, pl. XLIII, fig. 14.

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Dumbarton Oaks 1963 Handbook of the Robert Woods Bliss Collection of Pre-Columbian Art. Dumbarton Oaks Trustees for Harvard University, Washington, D.C., p. 23, cat. 108.

Dumbarton Oaks and Gudrun Bühl 2008 Dumbarton Oaks: The Collections. Published by Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection; Distributed by Harvard University Press, Washington, D.C., [Cambridge, Mass.]. p. 192-3.

Fitton, Avis, Donna M. Goodman and Edward O'Connor 2007 Worldviews: Contact and Change (8th Grade Textbook). Pearson Education Canada, Don Mills, ON. p. 159.

García Moll, Roberto, Felipe R. Solís Olguín and Jaime Bali 1990 El Tesoro De Moctezuma.  1a ed. Colección Editorial De Arte Chrysler. Chrysler México, México, D.F., p. 151.

Gendrop, Paul and Iñaki Díaz Balerdi 1994 Escultura Azteca: Una Aproximación Estética.  1. ed. Editorial Trillas, México. p. 116, fig. 154.

Graves, Robert 1968 Introduction. In New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology, pp. xi, 500. New ed, Félix Guirand, general editor. Putnam, New York]. p. 432.

Kubler, George 1984 Ancient American Gods and Their Living Impersonators. Apollo CXIX (266):10-20. p. 14-15, cat. 266, fig. 7-8.

Levenson, Jay A. and National Gallery of Art (U.S.) 1991 Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration. National Gallery of Art; Yale University Press, Washington, New Haven. p. 548, cat. 364.

Miller, Mary Ellen 1991 Pre-Hispanic Jade. Latin American Art  (Spring 1991). p. 35, fig. 6.

Nicholson, H. B., Eloise Quiñones Keber and National Gallery of Art (U.S.) 1983 Art of Aztec Mexico: Treasures of Tenochtitlan. National Gallery of Art, Washington. p. 9, 105-106.

Olivier, Guilhem 1997 Moqueries Et Métamorphoses D'un Dieu Aztèque: Tezcatlipoca, Le "Seigneur Au Miroir Fumant". Mémoires De L'institut D'ethnologie, 33. Institut d'ethnologie Musée de l'homme, Paris. frontispiece.

Olivier, Guilhem 2003 Mockeries and Metamorphoses of an Aztec God: Tezcatlipoca, "Lord of the Smoking Mirror". Mesoamerican Worlds. University Press of Colorado, Boulder. frontispiece.

Robertson, Donald 1959 Review of 1957 Catalogue. The College Art Journal XIX (1). p. 106-107.

Soustelle, Jacques 1967 Mexico. Archaeologia Mundi. Nagel, Geneva. p. 242, fig. 169.

Vaillant, George Clapp 1962 Aztecs of Mexico: Origin, Rise, and Fall of the Aztec Nation. Doubleday, Garden City, N.Y., pl. 59.

2560.6 g

"Alter Ego - Masks, their Art and Use", Museum for the Arts of Decoration, Cooper Union, Ney York, NY, 1951 (catalogue # 20).

"Indigenous Art of the Americas", National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, March 1952 to July 1962.

"Art of Aztec Mexico: Treasures of Tenochtitlan", National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, 9/28/1983 - 4/1/1984.

"Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration", National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, 10/12/1991 - 1/12/1992.

"Moctezuma, Aztec Ruler", The Britism Museum, London, 9/24/2009 - 1/24/2010.

"Permanent exhibit", Dumbarton Oaks, 1963  -

Purchased from Earl Stendahl, Los Angeles (dealer), by Robert Woods Bliss, 1948.

Robert Woods Bliss Collection of Pre-Columbian Art, Washington, DC, 1948-1962.

Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Pre-Columbian Collection, Washington, DC.