Head of Old Fire God,

600–900

This head may have been part of a seated elderly man, probably the Old Fire God, that supported a ceremonial incense burner. Representations of this deity—associated with volcanic activity and renewal—were found in Teotihuacan made of stone and, later, in Veracruz made of ceramic. The donation of this work to the Princeton University Art Museum was facilitated by Gillett Griffin (1928–2016), the curator who championed the Museum’s collection of art of the ancient Americas. A sketch of the object in Griffin’s notebooks indicates who sold the work to him in 1970 but not the location. While Griffin refers to the head as Huehueteotl (“Old-Old God” in Nahuatl), the term anachronistically attributed a Mexica (Aztec) concept—based on visual similarity—to a culture that had existed at least six hundred years earlier and was unlikely to have spoken Nahuatl.

Comparative illustartion: Griffin’s drawing of the work at time of purchase (Griffin Notebook 7-5)