In the Olmec culture the mask was considered an
icon of transformation. It makes visible the
charismatic and shamanic power of the wearer;
who was either a ruler or shaman. Often the
mask has an expression of an otherworldly
nature, as if submerged in an ecstatic trance. A
mask will never change, it is unaffected by
emotion or time, and will forever express the
virtues the sculptor endowed upon it. This
quality of the eternal appealed to Olmec rulers.
The sheer power of this stone mask is
monumental in scope. There is a sense it is a
product of nature, elemental and beyond
comprehension. Yet, a very skilled sculptor was
needed to carve the intricate designs. This is not
difficult to imagine given its almost primordial
character, which seems to come from another
dimension. In many respects the Olmec
themselves seem not to have been of this world;
and objects such as this extraordinary mask
appear as living proof.
Today, masks are worn mostly for the fun of
Halloween parties or the profit of robbing banks.
In either case their purpose is simply to conceal
the identity of the wearer. The peoples of ancient
cultures, however, believed that masks were
magical and that by donning one the wearer
actually became the god, demon or animal it
represented and was, therefore, endowed with all
its powers of good or evil.
Masks of every conceivable non-perishable
material and varying sizes have been found all
over Mexico. The earliest we know of were made
of clay but it is probable that others made of
gourds or even paper have not survived. Jade, as
the symbol of life and the most precious
substance known, was often used for the most
prestigious kings and powerful gods. Masks were
frequently laid over the faces or on the chests of
the dead. Though their actual purpose is
obscure, at least one, that found in the tomb of
a Pakal, ruler of Palenque, seems to have been a
true portrait of the deceased.
- (SP.633)
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