Earth Monster (Tlaltecuhtli) 1521

This relief of Tlaltecuhtli, the Earth Monster, was carved from stone by Aztec artists sometime between 1300 and 1521. The sheer labor involved in quarrying and carving this dark stone gives a sense of the resources and labor commanded by the Aztec empire. The process of carving, likely done with tools of stone and perhaps copper, would have been slow and deliberate. Notice the hard, unyielding nature of the stone itself. The figure emerges from it, a testament to the carver's skill in manipulating this dense material. The weight of the stone adds to the sense of Tlaltecuhtli’s power and significance as an earth deity. The very materiality speaks to a worldview where the earth was alive, a being to be reckoned with. In appreciating this object, remember the human effort and the cultural beliefs embedded in every groove and plane. It is an extraordinary expression of artistry inextricably linked to social context.