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Cylinder vase
Maya
Late Classic Period
750–770 AD
Object Place: Ik' polity, El Petén, Guatemala
Medium/Technique
Earthenware with brown-black on cream slip, traces of orange slip
Dimensions
14.8 x 13.3 cm (5 13/16 x 5 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Landon T. Clay
Accession Number1988.1175
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsCeramics – Pottery – Earthenware
The Maize god-perched on a saurian (a serpent-like, mythical being) symbolizing the supernatural realm-dons jewelry prior to ascending from the Underworld.
Catalogue Raisonné
MS1837; Kerr 1004
DescriptionCylinder vessel painted in fineline black on cream. The two-episode scene illustrates the the Maize god's entering the underworld at death followed by his twin sons' retrieval of their father's regalia prior to his resurrection. The Standard Dedicatory Phrase around the vessel's rim ends with the name and titles of its patron Yajawte' K'inich, ruler of the Ik' polity (r. 738-about 768).
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.