# data[].attributes.body
In this collection, you will have the opportunity to examine the historical, social, and religious contexts of female and genderqueer representation in spiritual and religious art. Spanning nearly 500 years and four continents, these works challenge the assumption that non-cisgender or non-patriarchal depictions in religious imagery are a solely modern idea. From the monumental Coatlicue statue to the Queen Mother Pendant Mask of Benin, from Chinese portrayals of the bodhisattva Guanyin to Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, each piece allows room to think on how sacred power has long been envisioned through complex and fluid gender identities. Together, they reveal how art has historically offered space for representing the sacred beyond gendered norms, opening a broader understanding of spiritual identity across cultures.

# data[].attributes.custom_properties.YLFqYliI
The Coatlicue statue, unearthed in 1790 at the Templo Mayor in what was Tenochtitlan is one of the most famous Mexican (Aztec) sculptures in existence. Carved from basalt and standing over eight feet tall, the statue towers over onlookers as she leans toward them. Created around the late 1400s or early 1500s, she is carved with coiling snakes at her waist, a necklace of human hearts and hands, and ferocious talons on her feet. In Aztec iconography, snakes coming out of body parts, was representative of squirting blood. This is in line with the traditional story associated with Coatlicue, where she has been decapitated and dismembered. 
One thing I found interesting about Coatlicue is how she can complicate modern notions of gender. On one hand, she’s clearly a mother figure with sagging breasts. However, on the other, her snarling face and animalistic limbs push back against any idea of a gentle “mother goddess”. This defiance of standard gender roles feels almost genderqueer: she’s neither purely maternal nor purely monstrous. It reminds us that ancient cultures could, and did, embrace complex figures that didn’t necessarily align with traditional binary gender roles. This suggests that fluidity in identity isn’t just a modern invention but a long-standing element of human spirituality.

# data[].attributes.custom_properties.ow2NJzAk
Mexico City’s National Museum of Anthropology

# data[].attributes.custom_properties.YLFqYliI
This small hip-pendant is carved from elephant ivory and is with inlaid iron and brass. It depicts the face of Queen Mother Idia, mother of Oba Esigie. Her features are idealized - she has engraved scarification marks above each eyebrow, iron-inlaid pupils in her eyes and has two central grooves that once held iron bars. Coral beads ring her neck, and her crown and collar show two alternating motifs, stylized mudfish and Portuguese heads.

The mask was made in the early 16th century for Oba Esigie to honor Idia in the royal court. Ivory’s whiteness signified purity and is connected to Olokun, the sea god of wealth and fertility. The mudfish symbolized the Oba’s human/divine nature and the Portuguese heads reference the foreign trade that played a major role Benin and were regarded as spirits of power. Worn by the king in religious/spiritual rituals, the mask served to protect the realm by invoking the queen mother’s spirit.

The mask is a wonderful example a female figure in a male‑dominated royal and religious tradition. The scarification explicitly marks Idia’s gender, and through the depiction of her in a sacred object worn by the Oba, the mask elevates her religious/spiritual power and influence. This imagery blurs rigid boundaries of gender, presenting Idia not only as a mother and queen but as a figure whose authority transcends binary limits.

# data[].attributes.custom_properties.qxipLJYE
Igbesanmwan (ivory and wood carvers’ guild)

# data[].attributes.headline
Guanyin and Longnu from an album of twenty-four portraits of Guanyin

# data[].attributes.subject
Guanyin and Longnu from an album of twenty-four portraits of Guanyin

# data[].attributes.custom_properties.C0eb0yWI
Guanyin and Longnu, from an album of twenty-four portraits of Guanyin

# data[].attributes.custom_properties.YLFqYliI
 This image of Guanyin with her disciple Longnu, the Dragon King’s daughter, comes from an album illustrating twenty-four transformations of Guanyin, the bodhisattva of compassion. Guanyin, who was originally depicted as fender-fluid evolve over time to appear exclusively as female presenting. Painted by Ming Dynasty artist Miss Qiu, this work displays significant iconographical elements like elaborate jewelry, lotus flowers, sutras and waves.  The lotus flower is a symbol of purity in late imperial China because it emerges from the mud to bloom. The Chinese word for “lotus” (he 荷) is a homophone with the Chinese word for “harmony” (he 和). The bodhisattva Guanyin is depicted in other artwork of the time, in a statue of the "Seated figure of the bodhisattva Guanyin" from the 13th century, the "seated bodhisattva form marks a transitional phase in the transformation of the male form of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara into the Chinese female deity Guanyin, the ‘Goddess of Mercy’"(University of Oxford). This representation of gender fluidity in religion is particularly significant today, as it relates to current academic and social discussions about inclusivity and the deconstruction of traditional gender norms within religious contexts.

# data[].attributes.custom_properties.ow2NJzAk
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art Cornell University114 Central Avenue Ithaca, NY 14853

# data[].attributes.custom_properties.YLFqYliI
Picasso's Les Demoiselles d’Avignon is a significant work of modern art. As one of the first cubist paintings, it signals a departure from previous art traditions. In this work, five nude female figures confront the viewer with angular, mask-like faces and fractured bodies. Two figures on the right exhibit facial forms inspired by African masks and Iberian sculpture, signaling Picasso’s interest in non-Western visual traditions as sources of spiritual and aesthetic inspiration. The painting destroys depth, showing the figures in flattened, angular ways. This was in strong contrast to the traditional notions of the idealized female nude.



Though often viewed through the lens of colonial appropriation and male gaze, Les Demoiselles also disrupts conventional gender representation. The women’s bodies, with their aggressive poses and ambiguous anatomies go against the tradition of the idealized female form. The reference of African ritual masks help add visual context that is as much symbolic and spiritual as it is sexual. 

Rather than a mere brothel scene, the work functions as a modern, secular altarpiece of transformation. It challenges the viewer by directing the figures gaze out past the frame, in a way breaking the "fourth wall" and placing the viewer in the shoes of a customer. 

# data[].attributes.body
The Coatlicue Statue, Queen Mother Pendant Mask (Iyoba), Guanyin and Longnu, and Les Demoiselles d’Avignon each offer different perspectives on how gender and power are represented in spiritual and religious contexts. Although these works come from different cultures, time periods, and belief systems, they all challenge the idea that traditional religious art strictly reinforces cisgender and patriarchal norms.

The Coatlicue statue resists easy classification and shows how divine power can exist outside gender boundaries. The Iyoba pendant mask honors Queen Mother Idia and raises women to a position of sacred and spiritual leadership. Guanyin’s shift from male to female in Chinese Buddhist art reflects how divine compassion is expressed through gender fluidity, and Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon pulls from African and Iberian ritual art to represent gender and sexuality in more ambiguous, unsettling ways.

These works aren’t just connected by their themes they work together. Seeing them side by side shows how cultures across time have used art to represent gender in complex, often non-binary ways. At the same time, their differences in material, purpose, and context remind us that gender in religious art isn’t a single story. This collection shows that sacred art has always held space for fluidity and resistance to rigid norms.