User:Mfarren2/sandbox

Origins
The Aztec of Central Mexico were inspired by sculptures from other areas in Mesoamerica such as nearby Teotihuacan, which they knew in its ruined state, and Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico. They believed the makers of such great works of the past were Toltec, whose culture was centered at the site of Tula, Hidalgo. Tolteca, the Mexica word for past, was also related to their conception of art, which they saw as genealogical. One sculptural type is the Chacmool, which is typically represented as a reclining male figure holding a receptacle on top of its midsection. An Aztec Chacmool excavated in Mexico City in 1943 depicts the rain god Tlaloc through its facial representation and elaborate garb. It follows the typical form, but is much more complex in its decorative elements than Chacmools found at Tula. The Toltec Chacmool is streamlined, straight, and adorned with minimal ornament, while the Mexica Chacmool has a curved body adorned with fine, high-relief sculpture.

Another sculptural form, the Huaxtec life-death figure, prefigures similar Aztec renditions of the god Mictlantecuhtli, god of the dead. The orientation of the body and placement of the arms are similar in both, and in some instances the rib cage and liver that figure prominently in the Huaxtec figures also appear in the Aztec ones.

The overwhelming theme in the interpretation of Aztec sculpture is the consistent appropriation of form from nearby societies that had either collapsed or were conquered by the Aztecs.