The jaguar symbolized the night and the darkness and personified the beauty and the ferocity, the mystery of the matrix of the mother earth which generates life. He was the guardian of the dark lands and also symbolized the sun in its nightly trip around the the underworlds.
Jaguar
Materials: Bond paper, carbon paper and gold leaf
Dimensions: 6 ¼” x 3 ⅝” x 11 ⅝”
Technique: Cartapesta
40hrs
In their iconography, the Olmecas represented the jaguar with a trapezoidal mouth with descending corners, a swollen upper lip, and pronounced fangs.
One of the oldest cave paintings represents the image of the jaguar god making love with a human woman, from which, according to legend, was born the Mesoamerican race.
The jaguar warrior was a member of the Aztec army and all the jaguar warriors belonged to the lowest class, differentiating them from the eagle warriors of the noble rank. These two totems represented the darkness and the light in the Aztec mythology.
They believed that the jaguar represented Tezcatlipoca, the god of the night sky, and his spots symbolized the the starry night. The strength of this animal was transmitted to his worshippers during his nightly battles.