1967.5 Head of the rain god (Mexico, Oaxaca, Mixtec)

Bonnie Pitman, ed., "Head of the rain god (1967.5)," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 51.

Carol Robbins, "Head of the rain god Tlaloc (1967.5)," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Suzanne Kotz (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 1997), 192.

Carol Robbins, Label text, A. H. Meadows Galleries, 2010.

44998556: UMO. Listen to sound designs created by UT Dallas students in response to this sculpture.

44998613: UMO. Listen to sound designs created by UT Dallas students in response to this sculpture.

65103434: UMO. Sound design created by Duriye Nasuhoglu, UTD student, based on Head of the rain god Tlaloc.

65103443: UMO. Sound design created by Melanie Levin, UTD student, based on Head of the rain god Tlaloc.

12933609: UMO. John Lunsford discusses moving Tlaloc (1967.5). [Note: Problem with audio track on tape.].

14265406: UMO. Tlaloc Deinstallation. [Note: No audio; Where is file?].

Dallas Museum of Art~Read more about the Head of the rain god on the DMA's Uncrated blog. 

Museum Records. Exhibitions and Publications. Exhibition - Publications Department. ID: 02/04.   Box 16: Centennial Publication, Box 1. Folder 27: 27. Mixtec - Head of the Rain God Tlaloc (1967.5) - Carol Robbins.

Museum Records. Exhibitions and Publications. Exhibition - Publications Department. ID: 02/04. Box 18: Centennial Publication, Box 3. Folder 27: 27. Mixtec - Head of the Rain God Tlaloc (1967.5).

Museum Records. Marketing and Public Relations. 200X.009 - Marketing / Communications / Public Relations. ID: 02/08/200X.009. Box 74: PR Collections and Acquisitions. Folder 38: Pre-Columbian, 1970-1980.

Museum Records. Topical Collections. 2013.016 - Beaux Arts Ball / Art Ball Records, 1955-2007. ID: 02/11/2013.016. Series 8: Beaux Arts Ball - Tlaloc's Frolic, 27 April 1968. Box 1. Folder 8: Tlaloc's Frolic, 27 April 1968.

Images. 200X.016 - Photograph Collection, 1900-2003. ID: 03/200X.016. Box 41: Photographs. Folder 20: Children's group with Tlaloc, n.d.

Images. 200X.016 - Photograph Collection, 1900-2003. ID: 03/200X.016. Box 41: Photographs. Folder 48: Conservator examining 'Tlaloc,NULL given by Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Marcus, n.d. [c. 1967?].

Images. 200X.016 - Photograph Collection, 1900-2003. ID: 03/200X.016. Box 42: Photographs. Folder 56: Unidentified woman with Tlaloc, 1970s.

Images. 200X.016 - Photograph Collection, 1900-2003. ID: 03/200X.016. Box 42: Photographs. Folder 58: Carolyn Foxworth (?) with Tlaloc, 1970s.

Images. 200X.016 - Photograph Collection, 1900-2003. ID: 03/200X.016. Box 54: Membership Photographs, 1994-1995. Folder 2: Curator's Choice, 1994.

Images. 200X.015 - 90th Anniversary Timeline Photographs, 1903-1993. ID: 03/200X.015. Series 3: 1960s. Item 57: A gift of Stanley and Mary (Billie) Marcus in 1967, this monumental ceramic vessel depicting a rain god (Tlaloc) created a large impact on the Museum, ca. 1967.

Series 3: 1960s. Item 58: Elizabeth (Yib) Rucker (later DMFA Director of Membership) stands in the dramatic shadow cast by Tlaloc, imposing 500 year old representation of a Mixtec god, ca. 1967.

Images. 200X.015 - 90th Anniversary Timeline Photographs, 1903-1993. ID: 03/200X.015. 

Images. 200X.015 - 90th Anniversary Timeline Photographs, 1903-1993. ID: 03/200X.015. Series 3: 1960s. Item 59: Docent Mary Jane Wilson spins tales about Tlaloc for a group of school children, ca. 1967.

Images. 200X.015 - 90th Anniversary Timeline Photographs, 1903-1993. ID: 03/200X.015. Series 3: 1960s. Item 60: Tlaloc was the favorite DMFA artwork of Benetta Thompson Brudno, Education Curator, ca. 1967.

According to Museum legend, each time the Tlaloc Head has been moved, rain and thunderstorms soon follow—the first being the 1983 move from Fair Park to the current downtown building, the second in 1993 to the new Ancient Art of the Americas galleries on level four, and the third in 2003 when it was moved for restoration. According to DMA Preparator Russell Sublette, who has been with the museum for over thirty years, and has been a part of each of the relocations: "Rain has always followed it. The most we've had to wait for a downpour after we touch Tlaloc is forty-eight hours. And it's never a light shower, it's always heavy rain after he's disturbed. I mean we laugh about it, but it definitely comes with the territory. It's an amazing piece."

Among the cultures of Central Mexico, the four Tlalocs were the beings who lived in caves and controlled rain, lightning, and thunder, and dwarfs worked for them. Tlalocs were both fearful and generous as their whims dictated, but certainly influenced the prosperity and well-being of people through their influence on the health of crops. Masks of Tlaloc were worn by the priests of the great city of Teotihuacan and by priests and warriors in the Mixtec codices. Tlaloc did not appear among the Zapotecs; instead a similar being called Cosijo played this important role. This colossal head of Tlaloc was found in the mid 1960s just about the same time as the great head of Tlaloc now in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City (Museo Nacional de Antropología, MNA). That colossal head, called a "ceremonial brazier" was found near Tehuacan, Puebla. This one arrived at the DMA with the provenience of Central Veracruz, but was later changed to Teotitlan del Camino, Oaxaca. All three sites surround a special region of the highlands of Mexico where corn was first cultivated in the New World around 5000 BCE, and the dry caves of this region have yielded remains of the earliest cultivated corn. Tlaloc and the large ceramic hand (1969.13.3) and three frogs found with him (1969.13.1; 1969.13.2) may originate from such a cave. It is possible that the ancient Mixtecs preserved the tale of the origin of corn in the Coxcatlan, Abejas, and Purron caves near Teotitlan del Camino, and placed the Tlaloc incensarios there as offerings to that sacred place, though this is unknown at this time.

The Mixtecs believed that the supernatural power of Dzavui brought lightning, thunder, and maize-fertilizing rain, thereby controlling the prosperity of the people. Dzavui was four-fold, a rain deity of a different color for each cardinal direction. The Mixtecs, who called themselves "nuu dzavui," or "People of the Rain Deity," believed this supernatural dwelled in sacred caves and hills where thunderstorms brewed. There, they built shrines and temples to which pilgrims journeyed to chant and make offerings of feathers, copal, tamales, their own blood, and even the lives of their children.  Billowing clouds of copal incense rose from the crowns of colossal braziers such as the DMA's Tlaloc Head. Both the DMA's Tlaloc and the one at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City bear the indentifying traits of Dzavui. Blue disks encircling the eyes stand for water rippled by rain; the long tubular teeth for flowing water. Serpents on the faces and ear flanges symbolize the swift strike of lightning and relate to moisture and fertility. Both heads have openwork ornaments on the bridge of the nose. Small heads on the crown probably symbolize the cardinal directions, while the twisted ropes on the crown may relate to the twisted celestial ropes shown in the Mixtec codices. In those sacred books of lineage and creation, priests and warriors are shown wearing masks of the rain deity; hills appear in the form of the rain deity's head, and hills or platforms support rain deity braziers or vessels. Only three large scale braziers are known to survive. Although this one is removed from its original context, the visual power of Dzavui still thunders through massive slabs of clay, traces of pigment, layers of symbolism, and time.