Grand Vestibule: The British Monarchy and the World
The Grand Vestibule at Windsor Castle reflects interaction between the monarchy and the wider world
Relief carving
signed & dated 2007RCIN 95967
This slate carving is a replica of a relief dating to AD 690 found at the Temple of the Cross in Chiapas, Mexico. The relief depicts ‘God L’, the Mayan god of the underworld and of commerce, who usually appears as an aged man. He wears a jaguar pelt and a broad, feathery headdress topped by a mythological bird. Both animals associate him with night and the underworld. The rod-shaped rattle he leans on may have been used in rain petitions.
Presented to Queen Elizabeth II by the Prime Minister of Belize, Musa Said, during her official visit to Uganda, 2007.