Wood engraving on Awagami Okawara 51gsm paper, packaged and mounted size, 11x15 cm (A6), signed and dated edition of 13 in Plum Black.
Part of a series of 20 prints created for a residency project at Mutton Fist Press. A limited edition of 13 prints, 10 of which are available individually, the remaining 3 will be available as a part of a set of all 20 prints. If you are interested in the set of 20 prints please get in contact via the website link below.
This series of prints are based on stone carvings of the patron gods of the Aztec sacred calendar, the Tonalpohuallli. The calendar is 260 days long and is comprised of twenty 13-day periods known as trecena. Each trecena is governed by a particular deity which oversees the rituals and ceremonies of those 13 days. This series of prints is based on those trecena deities.
Xochipilli (show-chee-PEEL-lee) is the companion to Mayahuel, patrons for the eighth week – the trecena starting 1 Malinalli (1 Grass) – Xochipilli is patron of the day Ozomahtli (Monkey). The day Malinalli (Grass) is governed by Patecatl, the Medicine god. Xochipillli means ‘flower prince’, he is one of the ahuiateteo, the gods of excess. He is also a god of positive creative energy and as such is a patron of flowers, dancing, feasting, painting and game playing.
Mayahuel is goddess of maguey, the cactus like plant from which the alcoholic drink pulque is derived. Usually depicted as a young woman with a flowering maguey plant and two cups probably containing pulque, in her earliest known representations she her dressed in a quechquemitl (a draped blouse). Like the water goddess Chaliuhticue she personifies fecundity and fertility. Mayahuel is patron of the day Totchtli (rabbit). According to the Codex Rios Mayahuel accompanied by the Corn God Centeotl are the patrons for the eight trecena.
NB. I have chosen to represent Xochipilli for the patron of the eight trecena as there are more sculptural representations available as source material, despite the importance of Mayahuel in the Aztec pantheon.
For more information on this series of prints visit www.mcgh.info/calendar