Feline

This large relief sculpture of a crouching feline was carved from an irregular boulder of volcanic stone. It most likely depicts one of the two largest predators in the Americas, either a jaguar or a puma. The feline lays back its ears and bares its claws as it appears to jump forward. Below the deep eye sockets is a mouth caught mid-snarl. The nose flares as the animal exposes its teeth and extends its ridged tongue.

Sculptors carved such feline images in bas relief on large stones in what is now Veracruz, Mexico. A similar example now in the Museo de Antropología de Xalapa (s/n 089) is said to have been recovered at Nopiloa in 1950. In this example the artist preserved as much of the stone as possible using shallow relief to create much of the animal’s form. The fact that most of the boulder was left in its natural state, the figure not carved symmetrically or in the round, underscores the importance of the stone itself. Great lengths and efforts were directed into deeply gouging the eye sockets. These holes may once have held polished cores of obsidian or another material to catch the light and animate the sculpture.

Mesoamerican societies revered big cats as the preeminent killers in nature. Kings and queens wore their pelts, made regalia out of their claws and teeth, and incorporated words for felines into their royal names. The tops of some sculptures of this type have been carved flat or with deep depressions (see MAX 10963, 10957), suggesting they might have served as thrones, alters, or basins for ritual libation.

References

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Art of Oceania, Africa, and the Americas from the Museum of Primitive Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1969, no. 548. Museo de Antropología de Xalapa (MAX s/n 089)