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Incense burner top
Maya
Early Classic Period
A.D. 400–600
Object Place: Department of Tiquisate, Guatemala
Medium/Technique
Earthenware: traces of white, yellow, and red paint, with a micaceous inlay
Dimensions
60 x 67 x 40 cm (23 5/8 x 26 3/8 x 15 3/4 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Landon T. Clay
Accession Number1988.1292a
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsCeramics – Pottery – Earthenware
This Teotihuacan-style incense burner is modeled in the form of a temple, behind which rises the dome of Flower Mountain, a place of mythic origins. The warrior/nobleman inside the temple grasps shields and wears the butterfly headdress of Teotihuacan military orders. Feathered medallions surround the figure and adorn the temple, the shiny inlays identifying them as divining mirrors, doorways to the supernatural realm.
DescriptionTiquisate Teotihuacan-style incense burner top rendering a human head wearing wide, circular earflares and a large headdress that forms a building which surrounds the figure. The building is decorated with typical Teotihuacán-style circular feathered mirrors or flowers, one with its original inlay of a micaceous stone. Flanking these elements on each side is a star motif, and above is a large butterfly effigy surrounded by long feathers. The figure holds two rectangular shields decorated with tassel elements, a feathered floral motif or mirror, and a wide paper or cloth strip at the top of each shield. The figure wears a wide collar composed of multiple rows of elements including two of round beads, a band of triangular elements with a large earflare at each side, and one with five bivalve shells. Below the collar on the front of the incense burner is another floral/mirror element flanked by butterfly wings.
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.