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Cylinder vase
Maya
Late Classic Period
A.D. 680–750
Place of Manufacture: northern Petén lowlands, Guatemala, El Mirador Basin
Medium/Technique
Earthenware: brown-black and red on cream slip paint
Dimensions
12.7 x 11.2 cm (5 x 4 7/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Landon T. Clay
Accession Number1988.1182
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsCeramics – Pottery – Earthenware
Monkey-like men wear the clothing of artist-scribes and sit inside a palace. They are the Hero Twin's half-brothers, who were turned into monkey-men because of their jealous conspiracy against the Twins. These simians became the patron deities of Maya artists, dancers, and musicians.
Catalogue Raisonné
MS1847; Kerr 1180
DescriptionCodex-style vase depicting four simian supernatural beings including the two patron deities of Classic period artists, Hun Batz and Hun Choven. A human male sits next to an enthroned supernatural, turning his gaze away from the four seated simians and seemingly peering outside the building in which they all are seated. A short hieroglyphic text records the Calendar Round date and nature of the depicted event, which may be the offering of balls of copal to the enthroned being. The Calendar Round date cannot occur in the Classic period calendrical system, which indicates that the event is taking place in mythological time.
InscriptionsCalendar Round date 1 Ix 1 P'op (an impossible combination), and short phrase recording a verb and protagonist.
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.