Advanced Search 
View: From above
Plate with rattle supports
Maya
Late Classic Period
AD 650–750
Place of Origin: Department of El Petén, Guatemala, Naranjo/Holmul-Xultún area, eastern Petén
Medium/Technique
Earthenware; pink, black and orange slip decoration
Dimensions
Overall: 38.1 × 38.1 × 12.4 cm (15 × 15 × 4 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Lavinia and Landon T. Clay
Accession Number2004.240
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsCeramics – Pottery – Earthenware
A ruler's primary responsibility was to channel supernatural forces through vision quests (journeys to the spiritual realms) in order to affect human affairs. Here, a lord gazes into a divining mirror and dances before a throne embellished with celestial icons. The stack of valuable cloth, quetzal-bird feathers, and rare, spondylus shells on the throne indicate his political and economic success. Vision serpents, conduits to the supernatural realm and conveyors of visions, adorn the plate's interior.
DescriptionTripod plate with tall, cylindrical supports. The interior surface is painted with the image of a lord dancing in front of a bench throne decorated with celestial signs. The man peers into a divination mirror set in an ornate basketry frame. Divination mirrors were the symbolic portal to the supernatural realm that could be entered by those with special abilities including lords possessing shamanic visionary power. This lord’s successful quest is implied by the four “vision serpents” encircling him on the plate's wall and by the black background evincing the spirit realm’s darkness.
The divination mirror leans against a stack of white cloth topped by Spondylus shells and quetzal bird feathers. These valuable commodities represent a gift or tribute either received by the lord or ready for distribution to the rite's participants. The lord gazes into a divination mirror propped against the stack of cloth, the mirror. The plate's exterior is painted with red scrolls and interlocked motifs on a black background like that signifying the darkened environment of the main scene.
[from Sotheby's catalogue text]:
"Supported on tall rattle feet, the tondo boldly painted with a corpulent lord standing before a large bench throne, looking over his right shoulder with strong arms in a gesture, wearing loincloth, jade necklace and earrings, the headdress of a snouted monster head with thick feather panache at back, the bench laden with tribute including a stack of bound codices, a plumed perforator resting on top, and a mirror propped against them, the rim encircled by four bands each with a profile head of the long-lipped monster, the exterior rim decoratively painted with alternating scroll and mat motifs/ the whole with areas highlighted by pink pigment against the black and orange."
The divination mirror leans against a stack of white cloth topped by Spondylus shells and quetzal bird feathers. These valuable commodities represent a gift or tribute either received by the lord or ready for distribution to the rite's participants. The lord gazes into a divination mirror propped against the stack of cloth, the mirror. The plate's exterior is painted with red scrolls and interlocked motifs on a black background like that signifying the darkened environment of the main scene.
[from Sotheby's catalogue text]:
"Supported on tall rattle feet, the tondo boldly painted with a corpulent lord standing before a large bench throne, looking over his right shoulder with strong arms in a gesture, wearing loincloth, jade necklace and earrings, the headdress of a snouted monster head with thick feather panache at back, the bench laden with tribute including a stack of bound codices, a plumed perforator resting on top, and a mirror propped against them, the rim encircled by four bands each with a profile head of the long-lipped monster, the exterior rim decoratively painted with alternating scroll and mat motifs/ the whole with areas highlighted by pink pigment against the black and orange."
ProvenanceBy early 1980s, acquired in New York by a private collector [see note]; May 14, 2004, anonymous (deceased private collector) sale (sale N07996), Sotheby's, New York, lot 192, to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 23, 2004)
NOTE: According to both Sotheby's and the family of the seller's estate this object was in his New York apartment for decades.
NOTE: According to both Sotheby's and the family of the seller's estate this object was in his New York apartment for decades.