Artwork Page for Mirror Back with Great Goddess

Details / Information for Mirror Back with Great Goddess

Mirror Back with Great Goddess

400–550 CE

Guatemala(?), Escuintla, Teotihuacán style, Classic Period

Medium
slate, pigment; other side originally inlaid with polished pyrite mirror
Measurements
Overall: 20.1 x 0.2 cm (7 15/16 x 1/16 in.)
Credit Line
James Albert and Mary Gardiner Ford Memorial Fund 1989.65
Public Domain
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Location
233 Mesoamerican and Intermediate Region
Print
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Did You Know?

This ancient Teotihuacan mirror may have been used in divination rituals.

Description

An important female deity commands the watery scene on the back of this mirror. The face, bordered by ear ornaments and partially hidden by a nose ornament, appears beneath a huge headdress with the fringed eyes and curled proboscis of an abstract butterfly. The deity rests on a shell-studded water band and two adoring humans offer flowers or incense in a bag. Mirrors served as costume ornaments and perhaps were used in rituals to divine the unknown.
Circular, slate mirror back with remnants of orange and yellow pigment carved with a central goddess created with geometric shapes with a square head and two flanking circular ear ornaments on each side of her head. Her headdress extends across the upper half of the circle with flowers, a central swirl, and radiating lines. Below her, two flanking figures face her, bending at the waist with hands outstretched. Bands with a star then swirl pattern circle the scene.

Mirror Back with Great Goddess

400–550 CE

Guatemala(?), Escuintla, Teotihuacán style, Classic Period

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