The serpent labret with articulated tongue is a gold-alloy body ornament from the Aztec culture of the mid-second millennium AD. Designed to be inserted into a piercing below the lower lip, it depicts a fanged serpent poised to strike, with a bifurcated tongue hanging from its mouth. The tongue, which is moveable and retractable, would have swung from side to side with its wearer's movements. According to a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art ("the Met"), the labret is "perhaps the finest Aztec gold ornament to survive the crucibles of the sixteenth century".[1]
Labrets, or lip plugs, were associated with the nobility in Aztec culture, worn by rulers and meted out as honours; even then, gold labrets likely remained the province of the élite. Worn prominently on the face, the labret likely symbolised the wearer's status and eloquence, and possibly divine right to rule. Gold was a hallmark of divinity—Tōnatiuh icuitl, translated as "the excrement of the sun", was believed to be left behind as the sun god traversed the underworld at night—and eloquence a hallmark of nobility: The title for the leader of the Aztec empire was huei tlahtoani, literally "Great Speaker". The serpent may represent Xiuhcoatl, the fire serpent wielded as a weapon by the sun god Huītzilōpōchtli.
The labret is dated to 1300–1521, the period during which the Aztecs flourished. Consisting of a gold, copper, and silver alloy, it was made by lost-wax casting; although such goldwork is traditionally ascribed to Mixtec makers either to the south or stationed in Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs, particularly by the time of the Aztec empire, may have also had their own sophisticated goldworking workshops. The labret was known by 1937, when it was placed on long-term loan at the American Museum of Natural History; it spent much of its succeeding history in private ownership but on display, then was purchased in 2016 by the Met.
The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico from around 1300 to 1521 AD. According to legend, the broad outlines of which find some support in the written and archaeological record, the Aztecs founded Tenochtitlan (modern-day Mexico City) on an island in Lake Texcoco in 1325, following several centuries of migration from Aztlán—a spot perhaps to the northwest of Mexico City and the origin of the name "Aztec", literally "person of Aztlán".[2][3][4] In 1428, after a century of various alliances and friction with the surrounding populations, the Aztec empire was founded.[5] Also known as the Triple Alliance, the empire was a coalition of the city-states Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan.[6]
The Aztec empire exacted a heavy tribute (or tax) of gold from the surrounding regions—perhaps amounting to 500 kilograms (1,100lb) a year—and the Aztecs had a rich tradition of goldwork to match.[7] The manufacture of such objects at this time has traditionally been attributed to the Mixtecs to the south, or to Mixtec makers stationed in Tenochtitlan.[8][9][10] More recent research has suggested that the Aztecs had their own sophisticated goldworking operation, particularly by the end of the fifteenth century.[11][12]
Though the gold tribute would have been sufficient to manufacture tens of thousands of small- to medium-sized ornaments each year, fewer than 400 survive, 267 of which were found at Templo Mayor.[13] In 1519, the Spanish conquistadorHernán Cortés landed on the shores of Mexico, and by 1521, he had decimated the Aztec empire.[14] The Spanish were taken by, and took, the luxury that they found; seeing the gold and silver, Cortés wrote that "no smith in the world could have done better".[15] The German artist Albrecht Dürer, who saw some of the plunder that was shipped back, claimed that "[i]n all my life I have never seen anything that has so delighted my heart as did these objects; for there I saw strange works of art and have been left amazed by the subtle inventiveness of the men of far off lands."[16] "Maddeningly enough," however, wrote the curator Jay Levenson, "although Dürer appears always to have had a sketchbook with him, no drawings of his are known of the now-lost masterpieces which he described."[17] Almost all of the gold was swiftly melted down, and turned into ingots.[1]
Labrets, or lip plugs, are a type of jewellery inserted through a piercing below the lower lip.[1] Called tentetl (literally, "lip stone") in the Aztec language Nahuatl, labrets were associated with status and power.[1][18] The Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún, writing in the sixteenth-century Florentine Codex, records a labret as among Moctezuma II's coronation regalia.[19] The Dominican friar Diego Durán, meanwhile, writing in The History of the Indies of New Spain, records labrets as among the presents Moctezuma bestowed upon visiting lords for the occasion.[20] Other such regalia and gifts included diadems in turquoise and gold, bracelets, calf bands, ear ornaments, and ear and nose plugs.[21] Surviving Aztec codices record, in text and in illustration, numerous different types of labrets, from plain to elaborate; many different words were used to describe the different types, and certain ones were bestowed or worn on certain occasions.[22][note 1] For example, labrets were also awarded with the honours afforded successful warriors—the Codex Mendoza, apparently commissioned by a Spanish colonial administrator to record pre-conquest traditions,[23] depicts the highest-ranking noble-warriors wearing long, hanging labrets—and merchants who returned from perilous trips to foreign lands were sometimes rewarded by being permitted to wear gold ornaments and amber labrets to mark themselves among the nobility.[24][1]
The link between labrets and the nobility may have been reinforced by the link between the nobility and eloquence.[1][25] The title for the leader of the Aztec empire was huei tlahtoani, literally "Great Speaker".[1][25] Eloquence was expected of nobles; according to Durán, noble children "were told to speak without stuttering, without nervousness or haste".[26] Positioned on the face directly below the lips, labrets likely highlighted the eloquence expected of nobles, and underscored their right to speak and be heard.[1][25][27] Somewhat contradictorily, however, the wearing of a labret may have made speaking more difficult.[28]
The eagle labret held by the Museo Civico d'Arte Antica mirrors the one worn by Nezahualcoyotl in the Codex Ixtlilxochitl.
The labret is 2.625in (6.67cm) high, 1.75in (4.4cm) wide, 2.625in (6.67cm) deep, and weighs 1.81 ounces (51g).[1] It is hollow, and made of an alloy of 59.3 to 64.3% gold, 26.8 to 33.1% copper, and 7.5 to 8.8% silver.[1][55]
The piece depicts a serpent poised to strike, with a curled eyebrow and snout, serrated teeth, two fangs, and bifurcated tongue.[1] The snout is large, with rounded nostrils, while the eyes are set under a prominent brow.[1] The tongue is twice as thick as the rest of the snake and was cast to hang freely, imbuing it with a liveliness as it is retracted or extended, or swings from side to side with the movement of its wearer.[1][56][57][58] The underside of the lower jaw is covered in scales; atop the head sits a feathered and beaded headdress, represented in false filigree by a circle of ten spheres from which extend three loops.[1] The spheres surround a small recess, perhaps once inlaid with stone.[1] The serpent is attached to a cylindrical plug, decorated with a ring of small spheres and spirals, which has a wide and plain flange to hold the labret in place against the wearer's inner lip.[1]
The labret, according to the Met curator Joanne Pillsbury, is "perhaps the finest Aztec gold ornament to survive the crucibles of the sixteenth century".[1][10] It is a rare example of ancient goldworking, and a piece that "opens a window into Aztec culture at the very highest level, a world almost entirely obliterated when Hernán Cortés arrived on the shores of Mexico in 1519".[1]
Symbolism
Serpents were a longstanding motif of Mesoamerican art, appearing since at least the second millennium BC.[1][59] They were particularly associated with rulers, in part because of the perception that snakes were able to transcend realms, from earth, to water, to sky.[1] On the Met's labret, the use of wavy lines throughout, even more so than on the serpent owned by the National Museum of the American Indian, "gives not only a higher artistic touch to the piece," according to the art historian Pál Kelemen, "but removes it deeper into the world of fantasy".[60][61] The labret's snout and curled eyebrows, and the feathered headdress, indicate that the piece may depict Xiuhcoatl, a mythological fire serpent wielded as a weapon by the sun god Huītzilōpōchtli.[1]
The labret's material, gold, likely also carried symbolic weight.[1] According to Sahagún, Aztecs considered gold to be Tōnatiuh icuitl, the "excrement of the sun",[note 2] left behind as he traversed the underworld at night.[63][29] Such labrets, especially when worn with other gold objects, likely evoked a connection with divinity, and implied a ruler's divine right to rule.[29][1] To Pillsbury, "Worn on ritual occasions and on the battlefield", the labret "would have been a terrifying sight".[1] To the art historian Dudley T. Easby Jr., however, the weight would have made it impractical to wear, and it may have instead been designed to be a funerary or votive offering.[56]
Manufacture
The labret is dated to 1300–1521, reflecting the period of time in which the Aztecs flourished, and could be the output of either Aztec or Mixtec makers.[1][59] It was made via lost-wax casting in three pieces.[55][1][note 3] The tongue was cast first, filed, and polished.[55] Next, the head and neck piece were prepared for casting, with the finished tongue inserted into the core.[55] The core was engraved, with the head and neck modeled in wax; comma-shaped marks in the metal show where the maker used a tool to press the wax into the core's grooves.[55] The wax was likely then coated in a thin charcoal paste, known as teculatl.[64] This became the mould's lining, and ensured the gold cast was sharp and accurate.[64]
During the casting of the second piece the already-cast tongue appears to have shifted, displacing the wax from the top of the maxillary arch.[55] Three holes 4mm (0.16in) in diameter—one behind the neck, one below the jaw, one below the body—show where a material such as wood or thorns was used to support the core.[55] The second piece would then have been cleaned and polished.[55] Finally, the second piece would have been fit to the core of the flanged base, and this third piece cast.[55]
Provenance
The history of the labret before 1937 is unknown.[59] It was acquired by then by Heath McClung Steele, an executive at American Metal Company,[65] and owned by him until 1949.[1] His children—Margaret Truman Fahnestock,[66] Heath Warren Steele,[67] and David Truman Steele[68]—next owned it until 1978, although throughout these periods it was on long-term loan to the American Museum of Natural History.[1] The labret was sold at Sotheby's in New York on 22 November 1978 for $101,000 (equivalent to $499,000in 2025).[69] From 1978 until 1981 it was owned by Jay C. Leff, a bank executive.[70][1] From there it was sold by Judith Small Nash, a dealer and collector,[71] then owned by Peter G. Wray, a major rancher,[72] until 1 March 1985.[1] It was next owned by Herbert L. Lucas until 2004.[1]
The labret was in a private New York collection from 2004 until 2016.[1] It was then purchased by the Met, using funds from the 2015 Benefit Fund and the Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, and given the accession number 2016.64.[1][73][74] In its biennial report on new acquisitions, the Met noted the labret as one of its recent highlights, along with the Crown of the Andes.[75]
Exhibitions
The tongue alternating between positions
Even before its acquisition by the Met, the labret has been on display for the majority of the time that it has been known.[1]
1940 — Museum of Modern Art, New York, exhibition ("Twenty Centuries of Mexican Art/Veinte Siglos de Arte Mexicano")[76]
28 September 1983–8 January 1984 — National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., exhibition ("Art of Aztec Mexico: Treasures of Tenochtitlan")[50]
Beginning 1985 (likely through at least 1992, with gap during the exhibition below[10]) — Detroit Institute of Arts, long-term loan (T1985.198, from Herbert L. Lucas)
12 October 1991–12 January 1992 — National Gallery of Art, exhibition ("Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration")[10]
6 January 1993–1 November 2004 — Metropolitan Museum of Art, long-term loan (L.1993.4, from Herbert L. Lucas)
August 2013–February 2016 — Metropolitan Museum of Art, long-term loan (L.2013.72, from a private collection in New York)
16 September 2017–28 January 2018 — J. Paul Getty Museum, exhibition ("Golden Kingdoms: Luxury and Legacy in the Ancient Americas")[77][78]
26 February 2018–28 May 2018 — Metropolitan Museum of Art, exhibition ("Golden Kingdoms: Luxury and Legacy in the Ancient Americas")[77][78]
12 November 2018–24 February 2019 — Metropolitan Museum of Art, exhibition ("Jewelry: The Body Transformed")[79]
Gallery
Serpent labret with articulated tongue
Close-up of head
Close-up of mouth
The headdress
Decorations on the plug
Front
Back, showing base of plug and one of the three support holes from casting
Underside, showing scales beneath the jaw and the other two support holes from casting
↑"Heath Warren Steele". Obituaries. The Enterprise. Vol.96, no.86. Lexington Park, Maryland. 28 October 1994. p.A-10. Archived from the original on 29 December 2023. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
↑"David Truman Steele". Obituaries. The Enterprise. Vol.90, no.25. Lexington Park, Maryland. 30 March 1988. p.A-8. Archived from the original on 30 December 2023. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
↑Other words used for more specific types of labrets included tençacatl ("lip straw", perhaps longer and thinner), tencololli ("something bent for the lips", designating curved labrets), teocuitlatentetl (gold labret), apatlactempilolli coztic teocuitlatl (gold labret shaped like a broad-leafed water plant), ahuictempilolli (labret shaped like a boating pole), atototempilolli (labret shaped like a pelican), metztempilolli (labret shaped like a crescent), xiuhcoatempilolli (labret shaped like a fire serpent), tehuilotentetl (labret made of rock crystal), and chalchiuhtençacanecuilli (curved greenstone labret).[22]
↑Another term for gold was teocuitlatl: "often translated (not without a sense of humor) as 'holy shit'".[62]
↑For a description of lost-wax casting by Aztecs, see Bray 1968, pp.131–132.
Pillsbury, Joanne; Potts, Timothy & Richter, Kim N., eds. (2017). Golden Kingdoms: Luxury Arts in the Ancient Americas. Los Angeles: Getty Publications. ISBN978-1-60606-548-8.
Roskamp, Hans (Spring 2010). "God of Metals: Tlatlauhqui Tezcatlipoca and the Sacred Symbolism of Metallurgy in Michoacan, West Mexico". Ancient Mesoamerica. 21 (1). Cambridge University Press: 69–78. JSTOR26309088.
Perlingieri, Blake Andrew (2003). "Mesoamerica & Amazonia". A Brief History of the Evolution of Body Adornment in Western Culture: Ancient Origins and Today. Tribalife Publications. pp.78–93. OCLC55220062.
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Close-up of head
Close-up of mouth
The headdress
Decorations on the plug
Front
Back, showing base of plug and one of the three support holes from casting
Underside, showing scales beneath the jaw and the other two support holes from casting
