Affer A. D. 250, a great many works of art were made in clay at Teotihuacan, including roof ornaments, host figures, and censers. Unlike the greenstone figures and masks that were found in the most elite and ceremonial parts of the city, many of the clay objects were more widely distributed. Unquestionably, clay was a cheaper medium and thus censers, for example, were common in apartment compounds while greenstone masks and figures ere not. The difference is not simply one of cost and status. Because of the malleability of the material it was possible to create more iconographically complex works in ceramic than in stone. WTiat distinguishes this sculpture from that of other parts of Mesoamerica is its fragility, the fact that it is often as. sembled from pieces, and its intricacy of detail. An exception to this is the bust with separately attached mask (cat. no. 60), which is stark in its simplicity and suggests that it was once dressed. In formal representation it stands half-way between the stone masks and figures and the clay censers. It, too, was made in separate pieces that were then attached to one another.
59
Architectur. al Element in the
Shape of a Bird
Metepec A. D. 6.50-750
Found in the 1960s in Palace.5 of the
Pla/.a of the Moon
Ceramic, stucco, paint
45 X 47 X 2.5 cm (17 V> x 18 '/> x 1 in.)
MNA 9-30.57; INAH 10-808.55
CNC'A-IN. AH-.MEX, Museo Nacional
De Antropologi'a, Mexico Caty
This is a ceramic architectural element or alrnena that probably crowned the roof of a building. The sculpted relief represents a bird, probabh' a quetzal or an eagle, shown with a speech scroll composed of two elements — green beads. symbolizing precious substances and olntes alluding to water. These .symbols are also as. sociated with birds in the reliefs of the pillars of the Quetzal Butterfly Palace (Serra Pnche, fig. 6). a .structure located near Palace 3 where this piece was excaated. Cl. DO
World History
