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Human effigy incense burner top
Maya
Early Classic Period
400–550 AD
Object Place: Tikal area, Department of El Petén, Guatemala
Medium/Technique
Earthenware: red, orange, white, and black slip paint
Dimensions
56 cm (22 1/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Landon T. Clay
Accession Number1988.1228a
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsCeramics – Pottery – Earthenware
This Maya king wears lavish, jadeite bead necklaces, pendants, and earflares. The cartouche on his head originally was painted with his name.
DescriptionTwo-part incense burner, its lid depicting a seated male figure, likely portraying a Maya ruler. He wears a zoomorphic headdress surmounted by a cartouche in which originally was painted his name (now eroded). Body adornments include a large pectoral depicting an anthropomorphic face, perhaps the Maize god, hanging on a long necklace of spherical beads. A human heart is cradled in his hands held in an offering-like gesture. His body is painted red. See 1988.1226a for a nearly identical object. The base (1988.1228b) for this figural incense burner survives, which is decorated with a modeled and painted rendering of the solar deity K'inich Ajaw.
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.