Section of a or monument sculpted with the image of a serpent with open fangs from which a supernatural entity emerges. These images were widely reproduced during the Late Classic in the cities of the basin of the river Usumacinta, especially in Yaxchilán. The reproduces a serpent with open fangs from which a supernatural personage emerges. This iconographic set is commonly known as "serpent of vision" because the classic Mayas tended to make innovations to commune with some ancestor or with supernatural entities. The conductor of these visions was a serpent or the god K’awiil, who possessed one of its serpentine legs, which served as means of communication with the invoked beings.
During the Late Classic, especially during centuries VII and VIII A.D., many of these invocations were represented in the region of the river Usumacinta. Cities like Bonampak, Piedras Negras or Yaxchilán, especially the latter, left a record in monuments sculpted with these invocations and visions. The main monuments in which these events were represented were s and lintels; one should not forget that lintels occupied horizontal parameters of private rooms, and in order to be seen it was necessary to duck and look upward, precisely because the represented ritual had a private nature and was a personal and intimate event.
It should be supposed then that the formed a part of a wider narrative discourse in which the personages responsible for the invocation could be seen, as was customary in the Mayan art of the Classic, as seen in different lintels of Yaxchilán. For this, it is probable that this monument formed a part of a more extensive iconographic complex and that only the part corresponding to the invoked being and its conduct, the serpent, has been preserved. The body and head of the serpent come from a vegetable element represented by the sign nal “corn”, which semantically related the event with harvests of the corn crops. In lintel 15 of Yaxchilán this same element is recognized located also on the upper part of the head of the serpent of vision.
The head of the snake shows features pertaining to supernatural entities. One voluminous eyebrow and a square eye with a semi-circular pupil, but the characteristic physiognomy of serpents is also recognized, such as scales or curved teeth from both jaws. A beard pointing forward is recognized in the lower part of the jaw. One of the most dangerous serpents of Central America finds its home in the Guatemalan Petén region, known as "yellow beard". It is possible that with this game of elements, serpent and beard, the artist intended to contribute semantic information that allows the snake to be identified. The serpent´s mouth opens in a right angle, allowing the personage to appear, a supernatural entity recognizable by the circular eye. The profile is anthropomorphic with a lengthy nose that s the upper lip. The mouth is quadrangular, long and with teeth.
The personage is adorned with an earring made of recognizable shell, not only by the shape it takes, but also by the discontinuous dotting with which the Mayas reproduced aquatic environments or related ones. Its hair is put back and bound by a diadem or tiara that ends in a volute manner at the height of the ear. The central adornment of this tiara is lost, but we can describe what it was like in its origin because diadems of this type were widely reproduced during the Classic period. They tended to be made from shell and crown in the central part with an x-shaped cross. This type of tiaras, as well as the shell earring, were some of the distinctive attributes that Chaahkl wore, the god of rain and lightning. The profile of the face likewise coincides with the classic images of the god, for which it is very likely that the personage invoked in this or lintel was Chaahk. Invocations of the god of rain, as well as rituals conducted in its honor, were common in the region of the Usumacinta during the Classic. Thus, in lintel 25 of Yaxchilán an invocation of Chaahk in its aspect of Aj k’ahk O’ Chaahk is represented and described; (see drawing 3 corresponding to vessel K1152 of the Kerr collection).
Under the iconographic program, jaws of the serpent or deity are another symbolic element that form a part of the complex ritual. It is framed by edging that is finished with overlapping fabric bands. Its inside contains a head that reproduces a main supernatural entity, with a voluminous eyebrow and a square eye; an open mouth with curved, volute fangs that come from the corner of its lips; vegetable adornments that occupy the cheekbones; a prominent nose that looks upward; a circular earring, and vegetable elements in the upper part that would make the allusion to the semantic context of this entity, perhaps in relation to the vegetable sign nal “corn”, which the serpent of vision bears and would make allusion to the ritual that was being carried out, which surely was related to rain and the annual production of corn, more so if it is taken into that Chaahk, as the god of rain, was a binding and essential element for sowings and harvests.
