Xipe Totec mask

Courtesy of the Werner-Forman Archive

Stone mask of Xipe Totec, the Flayed Lord, dressed in the skin of a sacrificial victim. In the festival of Tlacaxipeualiztli a sacrificial victim was skinned alive, and a warrior danced dressed in the skin. The ceremony symbolised the bursting of the skin of the maize seed. British Museum collection.

The Werner-Forman Archive