More Art on the Wall

I have already hung many pieces of art (both my own and by other artists) in my new apartment.  However, I still have a number of pieces that need to be framed.  I have been taking them to a framing shop a fifteen-minute walk from my home.  The latest item that I have hung on the wall is a print that I bought a few years ago at the Sunday art market in Mexico City.  The artist is Carlos del River.  (I'm not sure if that is his real name, or a professional name that he has assumed.)  I have talked with him a number of times at the art market, and I like his work.  I kept telling him that someday I was going to buy one of his pieces.  I finally bought one of his prints, a work entitled "Sacrificio".  It is based on a famous Mayan carving which was found at the ruins of Yaxchilán.

This is the framed print now hanging in the hall of my apartment.

(image taken from the internet)

This is the original Mayan carving which is now in the British Museum

Most people looking at the print would just think that it's a nice piece of Mayan-inspired art and would never realize what it depicts.  However, I used to discuss the original carving with my students when we would study the Mayan civilization. It shows a rather gruesome sacrificial ritual.  The queen of Xachilán is performing a blood-letting ceremony.

She is pulling a rope studded with obsidian shards through her tongue.  The drops of blood fall onto strips of paper in a basket. The paper will then be burnt as an offering to the gods.

If I have visitors to the apartment, and they ask about this picture, I don't think I will give them all the gory details. 😊