01 Photograph Gallery

02 Object Information

Description

Polychrome cylindrical vase (orange, red, and black on cream) decorated with a procession of three figures dressed in feline costumes. All three display a long tail with dark spots—possibly evoking the jaguar—and bodies covered with red circular motifs, a common pictorial device in Classic-period ceramics used to indicate special garments, transformed bodies, or beings in liminal or transitional states.

Each figure wears a zoomorphic mask with features of composite creatures, possibly related to the hybrid beings of the underworld or ritual sphere. Two of the figures, whose masks show elongated snouts, also wear gloves or mittens with jaguar claws. Likewise, two figures lift their masks to reveal human faces beneath, emphasizing the performative and transformational character of the scene—a theme consistent with iconography of ritual dance, personification, or embodiment of supernatural entities documented on vessels from the Petén area and the Usumacinta region.

The figures also wear a red scarf, an element associated with their identity as way or wahyi (supernatural alter egos and protectors) in various Maya scenes related to ceremonial contexts, offerings, or sacrificial acts, rather than everyday attire.

The sequential arrangement of the characters, their dynamic posture, and the repeated use of similar attributes suggest a ritualized procession or narrative series involving officiants who adopt supernatural identities through the use of masks and specialized attire. Taken together, the vase depicts a scene whose principal iconographic themes are transformation and supernatural personification, practices well documented in the Maya court during the Late Classic period.

*Vase with rounded rim, slightly out-curving wall, and flat bottom. Interior painted in brown.

* Impact damage with loss on the bottom.

Period

CLASSIC (150/200 A.D.-900 A.D.) Late Classic (650-900 AD).

Provenance

Maya Lowlands

Medium / Material

Clay

Technique

Modeled, Painting, Slip

Dimensions

Height: 19 cm
Diameter: 14.5 cm

03 References and Exhibitions

References to similar objects

Other examples can be found here:

Reents-Budet, Dorie. 1994. Painting the Maya Universe: Royal Ceramics of the Classic Period. Durham & London: Duke University Press. 462 pp.

Kerr, Justin. s.f. The Maya Vase Database. www.mayavase.com
Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. (FAMSI).

Houston, Stephen, y David Stuart. 1996. “Of Gods, Glyphs and Kings: Divinity and Rulership Among the Classic Maya.” Antiquity 70 (268): 289–312.

Looper, Matthew. 2009. To Be Like Gods: Dance in Ancient Maya Civilization. Austin: University of Texas Press. 311 pp.

Taube, Karl. 2005. “The Symbolism of Jade in Classic Maya Religion.” En: Mesoamerican Voices: Native-Language Writings from Colonial Mexico, Oaxaca, Yucatan, and Guatemala. Edited by Matthew Restall, Lisa Sousa and Kevin Terraciano, pp. 131–149. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Exhibitions

On loan to the Miraflores Museum (from 2009 to September 26, 2018)

Publications