{
"data": {
"id": 138881,
"accession_number": "1963.252",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Mural Fragment with Elite Male and Maguey Cactus Leaves, 500\u2013550. Central Mexico, Tlacuilapaxco apartment compound(?), Teotihuac\u00e1n style, Classic Period. Fresco on wall fragment; overall: 83.2 x 116.2 cm (32 3/4 x 45 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1963.252",
"current_location": "233 Mesoamerican and Intermediate Region",
"title": "Mural Fragment with Elite Male and Maguey Cactus Leaves",
"creation_date": "500\u2013550",
"creation_date_earliest": 500,
"creation_date_latest": 550,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Central Mexico, Tlacuilapaxco apartment compound(?), Teotihuac\u00e1n style, Classic Period"
],
"technique": "fresco on wall fragment",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Art of the Americas",
"collection": "AA - Mesoamerica",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Overall: 83.2 x 116.2 cm (32 3/4 x 45 3/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.832,
"height_inch": 32,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.75,
"width": 1.162,
"width_inch": 45,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.75
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Black Tulip Gallery, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?-1963",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1963-",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "This fragment is from a larger composition that covered the walls of a patio at Teotihuacan.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "This richly dressed elite male belonged to a row of identical figures who processed along the walls of a patio in one of Teotihuac\u00e1n\u2019s wealthy apartment compounds. He offers a chant or prayer, materialized in a mouth scroll, along with a flower-filled libation that cascades from one hand. In the other hand, he carries an incense bag. The thorny spines of the maguey cactus, in front and behind, may allude to the offering of precious blood and a ritual beverage made from the cactus\u2019s sap (pulque, a less refined form of tequila). The spines are thrust into objects that may represent bundles or plots of land.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60469044"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1963.252-mural-fragment-with"
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},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Berrin, Kathleen, and Clara Millon. Feathered Serpents and Flowering Trees: Reconstructing the Murals of Teotihuaca\u0301n. [San Francisco, Calif.]: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1988.",
"page_number": "pp. 195-205",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Lee, Sherman E. \"Year in Review for 1963.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 50, no. 10 (1963).",
"page_number": "p. 291",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25151974"
},
{
"citation": "Kubler, George. \"The Iconography of the Art of Teotihuac\u00e1n.\" Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology, no. 4 (1967).",
"page_number": "p. 4, 7-8 , fig. 17",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/41263406"
},
{
"citation": "Miller, Arthur G. The Mural Painting of Teotihuaca\u0301n. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1973.",
"page_number": "p. 36-37, 170, fig. 366",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Millon, Rene\u0301. Urbanization at Teotihuaca\u0301n, Mexico. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1973.",
"page_number": "p. 33-36, 121, fig. 48b",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Young-S\u00e1nchez, Margaret. \"Veneration of the Dead: Religious Ritual on a Pre-Columbian Mirror-Back.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77, no. 9 (1990)",
"page_number": "p. 328, fig. 4",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25161301"
},
{
"citation": "Mexican Art Abroad. (Mexico: Groupo Azabache S.A. de C.V, 1994).",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Me\u0301xico en el mundo de las colecciones de arte. [Me\u0301xico, D.F.]: [El Gobierno de la Repu\u0301blica], 1994. .",
"page_number": "p. 84",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. New York, NY: Abrams, 1995.",
"page_number": "p. 145",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Gardner, Helen, Richard G. Tansey, and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner's Art Through the Ages. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1996.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Turner, J. S. The Dictionary of Art. New York: Grove, 1996.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. [Place of publication not identified]: Prentice Hall, 2001.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Honour, Hugh, and John Fleming. A World History of Art. London: Laurence King, 1999.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Honour, Hugh, and John Fleming. A World History of Art. London: Laurence King, 2002.",
"page_number": "p. 522, fig. 12.3",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Stokstad, Marilyn, David Cateforis, and Stephen Addiss. Art History. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2005. .",
"page_number": "fig. 12-7",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Honour, Hugh, and John Fleming. A World History of Art. London: Laurence King, 2005.",
"page_number": "p. 509, fig. 12.3",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Hernaez, Gerardo A. Ramirez and Esmeralda Reynoso Camacho. The Skin of Teotihuacan. (Arts and Cultures, 2008).",
"page_number": "p. 116, fig. 13",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Wilkins, David G., Bernard Schultz, and Katheryn M. Linduff. Art Past, Art Present. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education, 2008.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Bray, Warwick, and David H. Trump. The Penguin Dictionary of Archaeology. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
}
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"creditline": "Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund",
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"sketchfab_id": null,
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"athena_id": 138881,
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"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1963-11-30T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 500,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "500\u2013550",
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"updated_at": "2026-05-29 07:06:46.244000"
}
}