Xolotl (Mdz20r)
This iconographic example for Xolotl (the deity and/or ancestor-ruler that is typically presented as part human, part dog) is quite different from the other one we offer. This one is also outlined in black, but is painted with multiple colors. It is a head in profile facing to the viewer's left. There is a black line (face paint? a tattoo?) cutting the head in half vertically and running behind the one eye that we can see. The eye is white with a large black pupil. The face is largely painted yellow. The mouth is open and teeth are visible. The ear (or earring) is yellow and red. Atop the head are two short yellow crown-like features. Behind the head is an elaborate headdress with layered pink and black feathers close to the head and, farther out, long green quetzal feathers.
Stephanie Wood
Some renditions of Xolotl seem dog-like, with sharp protruding teeth and wrinkled faces. The Mexican hairless dog called the xoloitzcuintli has wrinkles.
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest
Stephanie Wood
deities, deidades, fuerzas divinas, divine forces, dogs, perros, aging, envejeciendo, feathers, plumas
Xolotl, a deity whose name was shared by a ruler of the Chichimecs, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xolotl
xoloitzcuin(tli), a native Mexican (almost) hairless dog, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xoloitzcuintli
Codex Mendoza, folio 20 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 50 of 188.
The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).
