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Cylinder vase
Maya
Late Classic Period
A.D. 600–800
Object Place: El Petén, Guatemala, Lake Petén-Itzá area
Medium/Technique
Earthenware: orange, red, dark pink, and black on cream slip paint
Dimensions
25 x 11.5 cm (9 13/16 x 4 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Landon T. Clay
Accession Number1988.1174
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsCeramics – Pottery – Earthenware
The hieroglyphic text on this vase reads: "u-ts'ib" (his/her painting); "ni-Ik?" (name); "its'at" (artist).
Catalogue Raisonné
MS1117; Kerr 1485
DescriptionThe scene features a gathering of the deity Its'amnaj and other aged supernaturals who hand women from an upper world to a lower realm, the two locales separated by a horizontal band of celestial signs indicating the supernatural and perhaps primordial nature of this event. The hieroglyphic texts include the Dedicatory Phrase (formerly called the Primary Standard Sequence), and shorter texts next to some of the figures provide their names or titles. Those of the vase's painter are found at the end of the Dedicatory Phrase and again in the T-shaped text behind Itz'amnaj.
InscriptionsPrimary Standard Sequence, nominal texts within the scene.
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.