HUASTEC ARTIST San Luis Potosí, Mexico Life-Death Figure 900-1250 Sandstone and pigment • This sculpture depicts the Aztec wind god Ehecati-Quetzalcoatl, creator of humankind, carrying a human skeleton, or Death, on his back. Considered the most complex and exquisite Huastec sculpture outside of Mexico, the Life-Death Figure was collected by Benjamin Moore Norman during an expedition to the Gulf Coast of Mexico in 1844. Norman donated it to the New-York Historical Society, and in 1937 it was loaned to the Brooklyn Museum with approximately four hundred other works from the ancient Americas. Because the Society lacked space for these collections, the Museum purchased them in 1950. What makes this work a BROOKLYN ICON? ® 403 Frank Sherman Benson Fund and the Henry L. Batterman Fund, 37.2897PA Possibly from Chilltuju, Mexico. Acquired by Ann McClarmonde Chase, by 1844; acquired by Benjamin Moore Norman, 1844; donated to the Now-York Historical Society, 1844; purchased, 1950.