Advanced Search 
View 1
Cylinder vase
Maya
Late Classic Period
AD 757-767
Place of Manufacture: Ik' polity, Motul de San José area, Department of El Petén, Guatemala
Medium/Technique
Earthenware with red, orange, pink, and black slip paint on a white ground
Dimensions
Overall: 10.5 x 10.2 cm (4 1/8 x 4 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Timothy Phillips
Accession Number2009.318
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsCeramics – Pottery – Earthenware
DescriptionSmall vase portraying the ruler Yajawte’ K’inich (reigned ca. 738-768 AD) and his successor K’inich Lamaw Ek’ participating in a “joyaj” ceremony in either 757 or 767. The ceremony was related to accession rites although its full meaning remains unclear. It involved a vision quest rite, indicated by the courtier Chahk Tok' Bahlam kneeling behind the ruler and holding a large divination mirror. The date of the event is recorded in the vase's rim text. Yajawte’ K’inich participated in this important ceremony at least three times during his reign, the others recorded on different vessels painted by less accomplished artists. A two-hieroglyph caption behind the figure holding the mirror comprises the master painter's signature phrase u-ts'ib tu-b'a(h) ajaw "s/he paints it for her/his lord." The name and emblem glyph of the painter follows, but it is too eroded to read with certainty.
InscriptionsThe glyphic inscription along the rim describes and dates the accession rite of Yajawte' K'inich, ruler of the Ik' Polity, and additional inscriptions between the figures give the name of an Ik' nobleman, K'inich Lamaw Ek', and identify the artist of the vase, known as the Tuub'al Ajaw ("lord of the Tuub'al place").
Provenance1970s, in a collection outside of Guatemala [see note 1]. By 1981, in a collection in New York [see note 2]. By 1987 until at least 1994, Carol Meyer, New York [see note 3]. May 10, 2008, anonymous sale, Skinner, Boston, lot 37, to Timothy Phillips, Boston; 2009, gift of Phillips to the MFA. (Accession Date: February 25, 2009)
NOTES:
[1] Nicholas Hellmuth, who photographed Pre-Columbian objects in collections outside of Latin America, photographed the vase in the 1970s. [2] Justin Kerr photographed it in New York City in 1981 (no. K1463). [3] The vase was on loan to the Yale University Art Gallery during this time.
NOTES:
[1] Nicholas Hellmuth, who photographed Pre-Columbian objects in collections outside of Latin America, photographed the vase in the 1970s. [2] Justin Kerr photographed it in New York City in 1981 (no. K1463). [3] The vase was on loan to the Yale University Art Gallery during this time.