Human squatting

In the Mezcala art style, mainly generated in Guerrero, human images represented in a limited variety of positions, symmetrical arrangements, and closed forms predominate. As can be seen in the sculpture addressed here, the identity of the being represented is only traced with a few features, which are evoked by means of fluting, grooves, and fine embossing. In principle, it could be assumed that the stone material and technology determined the schematic and hieratic appearance of the works; however, it is appropriate to consider that aesthetic canons along with symbolic values could prevail in the formal solutions.  

Guerrero has abundant mineral resources that include gold and silver, rocks of volcanic origin such as diorite, andesite, and granite, and metamorphic rocks such as serpentinite, slate, and marble. Rather than metals, Mesoamericans had a special predilection for green and blue stones in various shades and starting in the Olmec phase, in the Middle Preclassic, a masterful lapidary artistic tradition was consolidated, in which the ancient "Guerrerenses" (people of Guerrero) played a prominent role both for mining activities and for the elaboration of objects.  

Besides this entity the green stones, in different types, are found mainly in Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Guatemala. Jadeite, the highest quality green mineral, also comes from this last territory. Given their characteristics and limited availability in Mesoamerica, green stones gave prestige and power to their bearers, although beyond this, it was thought that they were impregnated with sacredness and considered "precious."

 The sculpture that we see exhibits an intense green, vitreous in character, and with tiny dark spots that show its varied composition. To elaborate on the subject of color and related thought typical of ancient Mexican societies, dictionaries and other ethnohistoric documents offer us valuable information. In this regard, Lizandra Espinosa Ramirez has emphasized the fine sensitivity of the Nahuas of the Central Highlands region, expressed through a developed variety of adjectives used to name the favorite green-blue tones. Among these are: "xoxouia," very greenish; "xoxouqui," smooth green; "xoxoctic," pale or tender green; "quiltic," quelite or smooth bluish green; "xihuitl," herbal green; "xiutototic," green, like a bird's plumage; and "mamatlaltic," deeply blue green. As can be seen, allusions to consistencies, textures, plants, and feathers expose a rich metaphorical language, as well as an exhaustive knowledge of nature.  

This knowledge necessarily extended to the multiple properties of the materials: both the visible properties and those determined by other means. Lapidary artists knew the different hardnesses of rocks and minerals, applying the logic that the hardest ones would allow them to alter the softer ones. Sand, corundum, chrysoberyl, emery, rock crystal, and flint are among the abrasives found in the area of Guerrero, and were used to grind and polish the pieces. Tests of the experimental technology conducted on projects attached to the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan, where pieces originally from Guerrero have been discovered, and from the Mezcala tradition in particular, reveal the use of flint instruments: burins to drill and polishers to give the final finish.  

The remarkable brilliance of the small object that concerns us here sets the tone to reiterate that the composition of the images goes beyond what is represented. This quality was another one of the sensitive aspects considered in the high value of green stones. It can be deduced that the amount of labor required to achieve such luster increased the beauty of the object, which brings us to the field of aesthetics in Mesoamerica.