Pre-Columbian, Mexico and northern Central America, Mayan Territories, Late Classic, ca. 550 to 900 CE. A beautifully-proportioned bowl with a rich painted iconography. The bowl has steep edges that flare outward at the unpronounced, thick rim, and a flat base. The interior is smooth, burnished to a pale orange, with two rings, one narrow and one thin, of bright red underneath the rim. The same red flows over the rim and down onto the exterior side, forming a border above the band of artwork and glyphs that ring the exterior body. On the underside is a glyph that is the name of the original owner of the bowl, a Mayan lord. Size: 7.75" W x 2.6" H (19.7 cm x 6.6 cm)

Around the exterior is a repeated image of a seated lord, dressed in enormous feathers and stylized jewelry, leaning forward with one hand as if about to make an offering. The lord is surrounded by glyphs on each side. The painting style is extremely fine, with rich detail and fine black lines outlining much of the work. For the Maya, extraordinary ceramic vessels like this example were gifted to elite individuals, akin to the gifts exchanged between high profile dignitaries today. Vessels were a functional gift, created by artist/scribes who came from elite families and who took pains to recreate the stories of Mayan mythology and religion as well as to depict royal and godly personages in their artwork. This artwork reinforced the ruling ideology and reminded the viewer of what was valuable in Mayan society. Today, they teach us about the stories that were important to the Maya and also give us clues to how elite people lived and dressed. Scholars have painstakingly worked to decipher the meaning of the iconography and glyphs painted on Mayan pottery and we know much more about them than we did even twenty years ago.

Provenance: ex-private New Mexico, USA collection; ex-Stanley Bogs collection

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#138113

Stable crack down one side, otherwise in excellent condition, with very nicely preserved painted motifs and light manganese deposits on surface. Three small felt pads are affixed to the underside with some adhesive but they do not obscure the glyph painted there.