Small stone sculpture that reproduces an apparently elderly supernatural being standing in a frontal position. It possibly represents the god Itzamnaah in its avian version. Itzamnaah could show itself as a bird or as an elder. The figure has square eyes, characteristic of deities or supernatural beings, but both the nose and the mouth are human. It wears a cap-like headdress on its head that fits on the forehead and is adorned with square plaques at the bottom. The front section of the headdress is adorned with a circle that must have been covered by a pyrite or obsidian mirror from which forked scrolls spring forth. Mirrors on the forehead are typical of Mayan deities, such as Itzamnaah and K'awiil. Itzamnaah has mirror marks on the body, as a symbol of brightness, but mirrors with the sign of night on the forehead in allusion to the spaces of the underworld. The headdress is adorned with bundles of feathers that open towards the ends and back part of the representation. These feathers are attached to both sides of the headdress by means of tied laces or straps. As a body adornment it wears pectoral with a double row of square plates. During the Terminal Classic in Northern Yucatan, stelae, columns, jambs and other architectural elements were sculpted with figures in high relief that displayed headdresses with designs similar to this one, and that also had mirrors with the same characteristics as those of the figure in the Amparo Museum, but instead of being located in the headdresses they were part of the pectorals.
The artist worked in more detail on the head and headdress than on the rest of the body, which is small and triangular in appearance in which the contours of the legs are barely marked by a slight grinding down of the stone. These are in no way separate from the stone, but are ed to each other by a base with a protruding spike. The hands are also out of proportion with respect to the head and are much smaller than the rest of the body; they are also shown open and with the palms facing each other. Similar postures were reproduced during the Late Classic in Jaina-style clay modeled figurines, and in the Terminal Classic in anthropomorphic columns and jambs from the Oxkintok region of Northern Yucatan.
The proportions of this representation, with two heads per body, differ significantly from the naturalistic style that characterized the Mayan art of the Classic period. During the Post-Classic, a conceptual artistic style predominated in Mesoamerica which was intended to transmit messages efficiently, and not to represent objects in a naturalistic way as did the Classic Mayans. Through this sculpture we can see that in the Mayan area the artistic canons of the Post-Classic were already present in the Yucatecan arts of the Terminal Classic.
Small stone sculpture that reproduces an apparently elderly supernatural being standing in a frontal position. It possibly represents the god Itzamnaah in its avian version. Itzamnaah could show itself as a bird or as an elder. The figure has square eyes, characteristic of deities or supernatural beings, but both the nose and the mouth are human. It wears a cap-like headdress on its head that fits on the forehead and is adorned with square plaques at the bottom. The front section of the headdress is adorned with a circle that must have been covered by a pyrite or obsidian mirror from which forked scrolls spring forth. Mirrors on the forehead are typical of Mayan deities, such as Itzamnaah and K'awiil. Itzamnaah has mirror marks on the body, as a symbol of brightness, but mirrors with the sign of night on the forehead in allusion to the spaces of the underworld. The headdress is adorned with bundles of feathers that open towards the ends and back part of the representation. These feathers are attached to both sides of the headdress by means of tied laces or straps. As a body adornment it wears pectoral with a double row of square plates. During the Terminal Classic in Northern Yucatan, stelae, columns, jambs and other architectural elements were sculpted with figures in high relief that displayed headdresses with designs similar to this one, and that also had mirrors with the same characteristics as those of the figure in the Amparo Museum, but instead of being located in the headdresses they were part of the pectorals.
