Terms and conditions of use
Chacmool
(1200-1400)
- Medium
- serpentine
- Measurements
- 78.7 × 119.6 × 45.0 cm
- Place/s of Execution
- Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán, West Mexico, Mexico
- Accession Number
- PC181-1980
- Department
- Pre-Columbian Art
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Presented anonymously, 1980
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of The Vizard Foundation - Gallery location
- Not on display
- About this work
-
Chacmool sculptures are thought to have originated from the Toltec site of Tula in the early Post-Classic period. The term chacmool literally means ‘red/great jaguar paw’ in Yucatec Mayan language. A nineteenth-century explorer coined the term to describe the large reclining figures found on temples at the Maya site of Chichen Itza. All chacmools follow a schematic form where the figure reclines with knees bent and the head sits vertical to the ground, facing 90 degrees from the body. The hands of the figure hold a receptacle, believed to have contained offerings. This example originates from Michoacán where a powerful Post-Classic civilisation known as the Tarascan kingdom flourished.