The sculpture known as “The Lord of Tancuayalab” or “The Apotheosis” is one of the most enigmatic and refined examples of post-classical Huastec sculpture. As with other sculptures in this region, this sandstone figure has a symbolic and iconographic complexity engraved all over its body, which specialists frequently posit is related to the duality of life and death. The figure represents a male person with a rigid posture, well-defined features and body decorations that allude to ears of corn and heads of ophidians. He wears a skirt decorated with geometric motifs, large ear flaps bordered by curved hooks and a fan-shaped headdress with a conical element projected from the top. He also has a breastplate on his torso and underneath we can see a circular cavity. Its function has been speculated about, maybe it is there to put stones in like hearts. It bears pointing out that many of these features (above all the conical cap and the ear flaps) are also seen on other Huastec male sculptures associated with Ehécatl-Quetzalcóatl.
The back of “The Lord of Tancuayalab” shows a fleshless character (on the lord’s back), wearing similar garments: carved circular ear flaps, a headdress with a conical element and pleated paper fan, as well as a breastplate over open ribs that cover his heart. This protrusion has been interpreted by several researchers as alluding to ritual sacrifice. The fleshless figure’s lower extremities are eagle’s claws; his wrists and ankles are tied with cords. While fleshless characters may be part of a symbolic framework developed very early in the region, they coincided with later images in the middle of Mexico, where Mictlantecuhtli was the main protagonist.
More broadly considered, the characters that carry another figure have been interpreted to be representations of Quetzalcóatl, who carries the Sun on his back. This mythological and religious action is an expression of the life-death duality, and in the case of this sculpture, it is found on one body. With reference to skeletal beings, authors such as Kim Richter refer to them as representations of Venus or Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli (“Lord of the dawn”), a manifestation of Quetzalcóatl. The symbolic presence of Venus as a nocturnal warrior, fleshless, in “double-sided” sculptures is seen in another group of male figures, but as an “abbreviation”, as can be appreciated in the El Naranjo (Veracruz) sculpture. This figure, the celestial god, in his nocturnal dedication, appears with curved ear flaps and a conical headdress adorned with a skull; also, the character has an open ribcage and an exposed organ (possibly his heart). In general, the dual nature of Quetzalcóatl refers to the symbolic framework of life and death.