The Vision of Old Chichoj 2002
Andreas Engel

oil on canvas
56.5″ x 68.5″

$18,000 Unframed.
Interested? Email your request here.

A personal note about this piece:

This painting depicts a Mayan legend originating from a remote area in the Guatemalan highlands where I spent my childhood. According to local accounts, angry gods hurled a large boulder to destroy a city’s wicked ways, resulting in a crater that later filled with water, forming Lake Chichoj. At the bottom of the lake, the old city and a bound serpent lay waiting to be revealed—only during the rare occurrence of a full moon in a clear sky at the turning hour of a new calendar year. Viewers of the painting find themselves in those conditions, standing at the water’s edge and peering into a vision.

The painting includes the plumed vision serpent Qʼuqʼumatz (commonly related to Quetzalcoatl), a key mythological Mayan deity associated with water and the underworld.

Painted primarily with palette knives, thick layers of blue provide a luminescent depth, as well as surface reflections. The painting evolves dramatically under changing light conditions, revealing an endless surprise of secrets. –Æ