God of the Smoking Mirror and Obsidian: Night in Carved Lacquer

A dignified, respectful depiction in an authentic Mesoamerican spirit, as a cut-lacquer artwork in a tall 9:16 portrait frame, the figure rising through the full height and viewed from far below. The subject is Tezcatlipoca, Aztec god of the night sky and the smoking mirror: a tall, commanding warrior with black and yellow stripes across his face. A polished obsidian mirror replaces one of his feet, a second obsidian mirror smokes at his chest, and he wears a jaguar-spotted cloak and a feathered headdress. A jaguar prowls beside him, and the background is a night sky full of stars. How it is made: shallow lacquer layers are selectively cut back so that nested colour contours show at different depths, all on a smooth, polished obsidian-black surface with restrained highlights. Beneath the black, the cuts expose deep red, ochre and turquoise; the stars are tiny cut windows of pale gold; the jaguar's spots are cut in ochre. The obsidian mirror picks up a cold white-blue glint along its rim. Palette: black, obsidian blue, red, ochre, turquoise. Mood: dark, polished, ominous, dignified. There are no readable glyphs, hieroglyphs, inscriptions, letters or logos anywhere; borders are plain stepped-fret and geometric patterns only.