Our object is the figure of a naked woman ing her breasts with both hands. It is unique because of its subject matter because in the Mexica sculptural production in stone the figure of the woman is usually represented seated in the way she would perform domestic tasks, kneeling, and also standing; she looks forward; in a forward-facing posture and her arms are at her sides. Usually, the woman wears a kind of skirt or woolen petticoat that is secured at the waist with a sash, and a shirt called a huipil, although she also covers her torso with another rhomboid shaped garment known as a quechquemitl.
Through the different ways in which women are depicted among the Mexica, we can understand some aspects of the role of women in society. Female divinities, who determined women's everyday behavior and morals and consequently the model of idealized physical beauty, are young women in the sculptural repertoire, contrasting with images of old women. It is also clear that there are few representations of completely naked women, as in the case of our piece, which makes it extraordinary.
As was indicated to us by Felipe Solis, who was the director of the National Museum of Anthropology and History, that although Mexica society was extremely conservative about nudity, they did carve images in stone of nude characters as an exception; we can explain the few that exist because these images were directly related to the concept of fertility. Reference is made from time to time to a carved wooden sculpture housed in the museum, in which a young woman s her breasts; in this case the young woman has a sash around her waist and her braided hair crowns her head; this contrasts with our example for several reasons, the main one being that our figure is naked, while some traces on the surface of the carved stone can be identified as body paint, along with certain luxury items such as a nose ring, necklace and bracelets.
Our sculpture may possibly be a representation of Xochiquetzal, the young goddess of beauty as well as of love and erotic pleasure; a deity who with Xochipilli is linked with sexual intercourse. She was the protector and inspiration of artists, weavers, goldsmiths and painters, and of the women who the Mexica society called ahuani, that is, the women who participated in certain festivals as companions of the young warriors returning victorious from the war. It is thus a clear reference to the way in which eroticism was controlled by society in the Nahua world. As Alfredo Lopez Austin explains, it was society that defined the rules and dictated the conditions under which the permitted forms of sexual expression were conceived; this piece is the product of the inextricable confluence of nature and society. A naked woman undoubtedly contrasts with the way in which Nahua women were educated, beginning with puberty, since women were raised with strict standards of sexual behavior; even so, the sexual privileges that society gave its inhabitants are made clear to us.
Our object is the figure of a naked woman ing her breasts with both hands. It is unique because of its subject matter because in the Mexica sculptural production in stone the figure of the woman is usually represented seated in the way she would perform domestic tasks, kneeling, and also standing; she looks forward; in a forward-facing posture and her arms are at her sides. Usually, the woman wears a kind of skirt or woolen petticoat that is secured at the waist with a sash, and a shirt called a huipil, although she also covers her torso with another rhomboid shaped garment known as a quechquemitl.
