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Cylinder vase
Maya
Late Classic Period
A.D. 680–750
Place of Manufacture: El Petén, Guatemala, Nakbé area, El Mirador Basin
Medium/Technique
Earthenware: brown-black and red on cream slip paint
Dimensions
14.3 x 11 cm (5 5/8 x 4 5/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Landon T. Clay
Accession Number1988.1171
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsCeramics – Pottery – Earthenware
Portrayals of spirit companions often include skeletal or other death-related features, as the transformation into one's spirit companion was likened to death or sleep.
Catalogue Raisonné
MS1849; Kerr 771
DescriptionCodex-style vase with scene rendering three wayob (supernatural co-essences) including two skeletal humanoid figures and a jaguar swimming in a pool of water. Hieroglyphic texts include the Primary Standard Sequence and short phrases naming each of the wayob figures and the "owner" of each co-essence (lords from Seibal, Calakmul, and an unidentified emblem glyph/place).
ProvenanceBetween about 1974 and 1978, 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 vessel was published by Francis Robicsek, The Smoking Gods: Tobacco in Maya Art, History and Religion (Norman, OK, 1978) p. 34, fig. 37. It 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 vessel was published by Francis Robicsek, The Smoking Gods: Tobacco in Maya Art, History and Religion (Norman, OK, 1978) p. 34, fig. 37. It 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.