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Tripod plate
Maya
Late Classic Period
A.D. 672–830
Object Place: Department of Petén, Guatemala, Naranjo-Holmul area
Medium/Technique
Earthenware: red, orange, and black on cream slip
Dimensions
Overall: 14 x 33 cm (5 1/2 x 13 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase with funds donated by Lavinia and Landon T. Clay
Accession Number2006.844
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsCeramics – Pottery – Earthenware
This rare plate portrays the Maize god dancing at Three-Stone-Place. The white cups symbolize the three stones, and the hearth's creative fire is rendered as a red circle on the underside of the plate.
Catalogue Raisonné
MS0605; Kerr 5723
DescriptionLarge plate with three tall, cylindrical supports ("legs"), each containing a rattle sphere of clay. Painted in the Holmul-style of eastern Guatemala, the image features the Maize god dancing at creation when he set the Three Stones of the cosmic hearth. These stones also are represented by the three attached cup-like forms on the interior of the plate as well as by the legs, painted in a striped black-and-white pattern that symbolizes stone among such Mesoamerican cultures as the Mixtec of Oaxaca. The Maize god dances on an area painted in a cross-hatched motif with fire curls which may portray the fire of creation in the darkness of the pre-creation era. The exterior walls of the plate echo this theme, being decorated with the black-painted waters of the antedeluvian sea and waterlilies.
The bottom of the plate is painted with a red circle at its center, which depicts the fire of the cosmic hearth of creation. The long hieroglyphic text eludes full decipherment, but it includes the local version of the Primary Standard sequence, a dedicatory phrase, and may name a male member of the Holmul nobility.
The bottom of the plate is painted with a red circle at its center, which depicts the fire of the cosmic hearth of creation. The long hieroglyphic text eludes full decipherment, but it includes the local version of the Primary Standard sequence, a dedicatory phrase, and may name a male member of the Holmul nobility.
ProvenanceAbout 1965, sold in Miami by Ella Castillo to Francis Robicsek, Charlotte, NC [see note 1]; December 6, 2005, consigned anonymously, Christie's, Paris (sale no. 5329), lot 450, unsold; 2006, sold by Dr. Robicsek, through Christie's, New York, to the MFA. (Accession Date: March 22, 2006)
NOTE:
When he consigned the plate through Christie's, Dr. Robicsek attested that he had purchased it around 1965 from Ella Castillo in Miami. The plate was later exhibited at the Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC, in 1980; tested at Brookhaven National Laboratories, 1981, as part of the Maya Survey database and given # MS0605; photographed by Justin Kerr, New York, before 1992 and given Kerr #5723.
NOTE:
When he consigned the plate through Christie's, Dr. Robicsek attested that he had purchased it around 1965 from Ella Castillo in Miami. The plate was later exhibited at the Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC, in 1980; tested at Brookhaven National Laboratories, 1981, as part of the Maya Survey database and given # MS0605; photographed by Justin Kerr, New York, before 1992 and given Kerr #5723.