Tezcatzon (MH504r)

An association with the highest leadership and approved by the divine force called Tezcatlipoca (“The Mirror’s Smoke”) underlines the sacred value of mirrors. See Aztecs/Azteken, an exhibition catalogue, eds. Doris Kurella, Martin Berger and Inés de Castro, at the Linden Museum, Stuttgart; published by Hirmer Publishers of Germany and INAH of Mexico (2019, 309).

One can imagine the obsidian mirror as a tool for starting a fire. A mirror could be an adornment on clothing. It could be a practical or a spiritual way of looking at one's face. In this collection, one will notice that profile views are much favored over frontal views of faces. Perhaps frontal views were perceived to be too direct or too powerful for normal purposes. Looking at rulers, such as Motecuhzoma, in the face was something controlled, too, possibly because of his perceived divinity. Frontal views of faces are often found on glyphs such as teotl (divinity), tonatiuh (sun), tonalli (sun/day), deity sculptures (e.g., nenetl), skulls, and an occasional animal (e.g., especially the tecolotl, or owl, which may have been perceived to have special powers, given that the tlacatecolotl was a supernatural being). Specifically "face" (xayacatl) glyphs are sometimes given in a frontal view, too.