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Human effigy cache vessel (incense burner)
Maya
Postclassic Period
A.D. 1250–1500
Object Place: Belize or southeastern Mexico
Medium/Technique
Earthenware: white post-fire paint
Dimensions
75.5 x 44 x 42 cm (29 3/4 x 17 5/16 x 16 9/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Landon T. Clay
Accession Number1988.1299
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsCeramics – Pottery – Earthenware
This male figure wears a tunic and loincloth and an unusual head wrap, with flaps. The spikes imitate the bark of the "ceiba," the tallest tree in the forest and the model for the mythic world tree. The urn contains small pieces of desiccated copal (pine tree resin) incense. This censer probably was found in a ceremonial cave; such large, ceramic sculptures rarely survived the challenging tropical environment or the religious zeal of Spanish invaders.
DescriptionA large, circular container or urn with tall annular base is embellished with a modeled rendering of a standing male figure. He wears a long tunic and loincloth, a wide collar with three disk ornaments and a large pendant hanging below the collar, and sandals with tall backs and tie-ends at the front. He also wears large, circular earflares and a curvilinear adornment on his nose bridge. His headdress has side flaps that extend over his shoulders and onto his back, the front of which is modeled in the form of a zoomorphic head with pointed snout. Two vertical lines of spikes on the sides of the container resemble the typical decorated flanges found on burial urns from the southern Guatemalan highlands. The urn contains approximately 50 small pieces (average size 1.5 x 3 cm) of desiccated copal incense covered with the same post-fire white paint as that on the vessel's exterior surface.
ProvenanceBetween about 1974 and 1981, probably purchased in Guatemala by John B. Fulling (b. 1924 – d. 2005), The Art Collectors of November, Inc., Pompano Beach, FL; May 20, 1987, sold by John B. Fulling to Landon T. Clay, Boston; 1988, year-end gift of Landon Clay to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 25, 1989)
NOTE: This is one in a group of Maya artifacts (MFA accession nos. 1988.1169 – 1988.1299) known as the “November Collection” after John Fulling’s company, the Art Collectors of November, Inc. John Fulling sold this group of objects to MFA donor Landon Clay in 1987, and they were given to the Museum the following year.
Evidence suggests that John Fulling built the November Collection from sources in Guatemala between 1974 and 1981. Only a portion of what he acquired during this time came to the MFA in 1988. It is not possible to determine precisely which objects were acquired when or from whom.
NOTE: This is one in a group of Maya artifacts (MFA accession nos. 1988.1169 – 1988.1299) known as the “November Collection” after John Fulling’s company, the Art Collectors of November, Inc. John Fulling sold this group of objects to MFA donor Landon Clay in 1987, and they were given to the Museum the following year.
Evidence suggests that John Fulling built the November Collection from sources in Guatemala between 1974 and 1981. Only a portion of what he acquired during this time came to the MFA in 1988. It is not possible to determine precisely which objects were acquired when or from whom.