The artwork titled “Coiled Serpent,” attributed to Aztec art, dates back to the Post-classic period between approximately 900 – 1580 AD. It is a stone sculpture that forms part of the art genre incorporating both sculptures and animal paintings. Currently, this significant piece of Mesoamerican art is housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, commonly known as the Met, located in New York City, NY, USA.
The sculpture itself vividly portrays a serpent coiled in upon itself. It appears robust and circular due to its coiled position, emphasizing the serpent’s form and musculature. The serpent’s head rests atop its own body, with detailed carvings suggesting scales and other features giving it a lifelike yet stylized appearance. The stone material lends the artwork a solid and enduring quality, while the craftsmanship reveals the cultural importance of serpents in Aztec mythology and iconography. This representation of the serpent could have had spiritual or symbolic significance, possibly embodying ideas of regeneration, earth, or fertility – themes common in Aztec belief systems.
