Serpiente cascabel
Date: 1944
Medium: Linocut
Dimensions (cm.): 13.5 x 13.5
Variants:
An incompletely carved proof is held by the Museo Nacional de la Estampa, Mexico City.
An incompletely carved proof of an alternate version is held by the Museo Nacional de la Estampa, Mexico City.
Alternate titles: La gran serpiente; La serpiente
Published edition:
Incidentes melódicos del mundo irracional, p. 14. Illustrated book published by La Estampa Mexicana and printed at the Talleres Gráficos de la Nación, 1944, in an edition of 1,200, 178 of which were numbered. Promotional materials stated that the images were printed from the original blocks.
Méndez 25 prints: portfolio of 25 images from Incidentes melódicos, hand-printed at the TGP on china paper, in an edition of 25 numbered portfolios, 7 unnumbered portfolios. Published by La Estampa Mexicana, 1945. This image is number 1 in the portfolio. Each impression signed in graphite, lower right, and annotated 1 in graphite, lower right corner.
Additional impressions, signed and unsigned, were printed outside the edition. Number of impressions unknown.
Contemporary publication: Incidentes melodicos del mundo irracional. See above.
References: Exposición de Homenaje 472; Méndez INBA 124; Prignitz 457; included in Prignitz 498-523
Commentary: Méndez incorporated Pre-Columbian motifs in The Snake. The image of the serpent is very significant in Pre-Columbian art, standing for water, caves and sky. In Mayan languages the words snake, sky and the number four sound alike. Glyphs, the Aztec and Mayan written form, used animals to signify numbers, the snake representing the number four. Snakes also signify transformation and rebirth because they shed their skins, and the open mouth with a forked tongue is commonly represented as an attribute of a god. Quetzalcoatl, one of the most important of all the Aztec deities, is represented as a plumed serpent.. The similarity between Méndez’s snake and a snake depicted in the Madrid Codex is unmistakable. Like the Pre-Columbian artist, Méndez created a semi-abstract, decorated snake with open jaws and prominent fangs. Like the snake in the Codex the snake Méndez created is also associated with nature; Méndez’s snake is intertwined with squash, corn and beans, the plants that sustain the indigenous people of Mexico, while the sky-snake of the Madrid Codex is surrounded by plants, rain and animals, and has sun designs on its skin. (Deborah Caplow)
Catalogue record number: 535