Rather than representing the god himself this image is probably a priest wearing the skin of a sacrificed person to personify the god known in Nahuatl as Xipe Totec, “Our Lord, the Flayed One”. The covering skin has black lines that look like wrinkles and appears to have some cuts, which are shown with lines painted on the shoulders and chest, and with the conical reliefs and projections on the shoulders and close to the knees, suggesting that the skin was placed in sections. The skin covers the face and the lower half of the head (as can be seen on the reverse side of the piece) and reaches the feet, the hands and the top of the head, which is decorated with large painted "combs", are not covered. In fact it is on the hands where it is possible to see the covering most clearly.
Human sacrifice, the careful flaying of a person and perhaps war are the implicit significance of this piece. Xipe Totec is the god of the vegetation that is reborn, wearing the skin of a sacrificed person symbolizes the new bark or skin of the earth that are produced every cycle, the Mexicas celebrated the god during the spring equinox.
In addition, in the Mesoamerican context Xipe Totec is the patron of goldsmiths, which is very interesting because the of the El Chanal culture were metallurgist, pieces of gold, silver and copper have been found among their remains. Therefore it is possible that the large nose ring worn by the individual represents a metal object. It is also significant that the decorations take on the schematic form of a butterfly, an insect that represents regeneration because it transforms from a larva into an animal that flies. It is possible that the circular labret (the ornament below the lower lip, which requires a skin perforation to be worn) and the pendants hanging from the earlobes also represent pieces of metal.
Tlaloc and Ehecatl are other deities that were represented differently in El Chanal art.
Rather than representing the god himself this image is probably a priest wearing the skin of a sacrificed person to personify the god known in Nahuatl as Xipe Totec, “Our Lord, the Flayed One”. The covering skin has black lines that look like wrinkles and appears to have some cuts, which are shown with lines painted on the shoulders and chest, and with the conical reliefs and projections on the shoulders and close to the knees, suggesting that the skin was placed in sections. The skin covers the face and the lower half of the head (as can be seen on the reverse side of the piece) and reaches the feet, the hands and the top of the head, which is decorated with large painted "combs", are not covered. In fact it is on the hands where it is possible to see the covering most clearly.
