Princeton Vase
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| Artist | Late Classic, Maya ('Codex' style) |
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| Year | A.D. 670–750 |
| Material | Ceramic with orange and brown-black slip, with traces of post-fire Maya blue pigment |
| Subject | God L, the Hero Twins, and a woman pouring chocolate |
| Dimensions | 21.5 cm (8.5 in); 16.6 cm diameter (6.5 in) |
| Condition | Finest known example of 'Codex' style[1] |
| Location | Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ |
| Accession | y1975-17 |
| Website | artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/32221 |
The Princeton Vase is a fine example of Maya ceramics in the 'Codex' style, originally serving as a drinking vessel for chocolate. It depicts god L, the Maya god of the underworld, surrounded by five female figures with a bound figure being decapitated by two masked men, perhaps the Hero Twins. The vase is a key piece in the Pre-Columbian collection of the Princeton University Art Museum and was found during excavations in Nakbé, Guatemala. Other examples of Maya ceramics include the Fenton Vase in the British Museum, London.
Description
The vase dates to the late 7th or early 8th century, during the Late Classic period of the traditional Mesoamerican chronology, It originated in the Nakbé region, Mirador Basin, Petén, Guatemala.[2]
Calligraphy
The surface of the vessel is home to a calligraphic painting with graceful, sure lines painted on a cream slip which present a theatrically composed mythological scene. Subtle visual devices, including one woman tapping the foot of another while her face points to the left, direct the viewer to turn the drinking vessel, allowing for a temporal unfolding as part of the viewing experience.[3]
One side depicts the deity known among scholars as god L, the ruler of Xibalba, the Maya underworld. The old, toothless god sits on a throne within a conventional depiction of a palace, with a pier behind him and what is likely a cornice above. The cornice is decorated with two jawless jaguars flanking the forward-facing face of a shark. Curtains, which served as doors for the Maya, have been furled to reveal the seated lord. God L can be identified by his characteristic open-weave brocaded shawl as well as the broad-brimmed hat decorated with owl feathers and a stuffed owl with outstretched wings. This god was also the patron deity of tobacco and merchants.[3]
Five elegant female figures, considered to be either daughters or concubines, including perhaps goddess I, surround the old god. They wear loose, flowing sarongs decorated with batik-like dyed patterns rendered in a soft brown wash. Each has jewelry at the neck, ears, and wrists. One of the women behind god L is pouring chocolate from a vessel similar in shape to the Princeton Vase, frothing the bitter delicacy into a vessel whose figure has been lost to wear. Underneath the god's throne, a rabbit scribe, who may be spying on the deity, sits recording the scene in a book with jaguar-pelt covers. God L delicately ties a bracelet on the women in front of him, while another woman taps her foot to draw attention to the gruesome scene in front of her, in which two men wearing elaborate masks and wielding axes decapitate a bound, stripped figure. The victim's serpent-umbilicus is biting the second executioner. The scene is a close parallel to part of the Popol Vuh, a K'iche' Maya mythological narrative where the Hero Twins trick the underworld lords into asking for their own beheadings. As is typical of mythological narratives throughout the Americas, the heroes win not through their brute strength but rather through cunning and, often humorous, trickery.[3]
The upper edge of the vase is inscribed with formulaic texts which consecrate the vessel, specifying its purpose as a drinking vessel for "maize tree" chocolate, and designating its owner, a lord named Muwaan K'uk'. The vase would have been used in courtly feats similar to that which is depicted.[3]
References
Bibliography
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- Daniela Soleri, Marcus Winter, Steven R. Bozarth, and W. Jeffrey Hurst, "Archaeological Residues and Recipes: Exploratory Testing for Evidence of Maize and Cacao Beverages in Postclassic Vessels from the Valley of Oaxaca," Latin American Antiquity
- Bryan R. Just, Dancing into Dreams: Maya Vase Painting of the Ik' Kingdom (Princeton, Princeton University Art Museum, 2012)
- Justin Kerr, "The Maya Cylinder: A Short History Unrolled," in Adventures in Pre-Columbian Studies: Essays in Honor of Elizabeth P. Benson, ed. Julie Jones (Washington D.C.: Pre-Columbian Society of Washington, D.C.), 99-118
- Stephen D. Houston and Karl A. Taube, "La sexualidad entre los antiguos mayas," Arqueologia Mexicana 18, no. 104 (2010)
- Marc Zender, "Baj 'Hammer' and Related Affective Verbs in Classic Mayan," The PARI Journal 11, no. 2 (2010)
- Anonymous, "Los Codices Mayas," Arqueologia Mexicana 31 (2009)
- Stephen D. Houston et al., Veiled Brightness: A History of Ancient Maya Color (Austin, University of Texas Press, 2009)
- Sarah E. Jackson, "Imagining Courtly Communities: An Exploration of Classic Maya Experiences of Status and Identity through Painted Ceramic Vessels," Ancient Mesoamerica 20 (2009)
- Erik Velásquez García, "Reflections on the Codex Style and the Princeton Vessel," The PARI Journal 10, no. 1 (2009)
- Erik Velásquez García, "El Vaso de Princeton: Un ejemplo del estilo códice," Arqueología Mexicana 16, no. 93 (October 2008)
- Stephen D. Houston, Davie Stuart, and Karl Taube, The Memory of Bones: Body, Being, and Experience among the Classic Maya (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006)
- Daniel Schávelzon, Treinta Siglos de Imágenes: Maquetas y Representaciones de Arquitectura en México y América Central Prehispánica (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Fundación CEPPA, 2004)
- Terry G. Powis et al., "Spouted Vessels and Cacao Use among the Preclassic Maya," Latin American Antiquity 13, no. 1 (2002)
- Caroline E. Tate, "Writing on the face of the moon: Women's products, archetypes, and power in ancient Maya civilization," in Manifesting Power: Gender and the Interpretation of Power in Archaeology, ed. Tracey Sweely (London: Routledge, 1999)
- Michael D. Coe and Justin Kerr, The Art of the Maya Scribe (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1997)
- Adam Herring, "A Royal Artist at Naranjo: Notes on a Late Classic Maya Cylinder Vessel," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (1995-1996)
- Steve J. Stern, "The Tricks of Time: Colonial Legacies and Historical Sensibilities in Latin America," Princeton University Library Chronicle, vol. LVII, no. 3, (Spring 1996)
- Dorie Reents-Budet, Painting the Maya Universe: Royal Ceramics of the Classic Period (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1994)
- Sophie D. Coe, America's First Cuisines (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994)
- Gregorio Arribas and Manuel Pijoan, trans., Los Reinos Perdidos de los Mayas (Barcelona/Washington D.C.: RBA Publications/National Geographic Society, 1993)
- Gene S. Stuart and George E. Stuart, Lost Kingdoms of the Maya (Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 1993)
- Michael Olmert, Smithsonian Book of Books (Washington: Smithsonian Books, 1992)
- Terence Grieder, Artist and Audience (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1990)
- Marvin Cohodas, "Transformations: Relationships between Image and Text in the Ceramic Paintings of the Metropolitan Master," in Word and Image in Maya Culture: Explorations in Language, Writing, and Representation, ed. William F. Hanks and Don S. R
- Barbara Kerr and Justin Kerr, "Some Observations on Maya Vase Painters," in Maya Iconography, eds. Elizabeth P. Benson and Gillett G. Griffin (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988), 236-259
- Mary Ellen Miller, The Murals of Bonampak (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986)
- Linda Schele and Mary E. Miller, The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art (New York and Fort Worth, George Braziller, Inc. and Kimbell Art Museum, 1986)
- Gillett G. Griffin, "In Defense of the Collector," National Geographic vol. 169, no. 4 (April, 1986)
- Francis Robiscek, The Maya Book of the Dead: The Ceramic Codex (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Art Museum, 1981)
- Jill Leslie McKeever Furst and Peter T. Furst, Pre-Columbian Art of Mexico (New York: Abbeville Press, 1980)
- Michael D. Coe, Lords of the Underworld: Masterpieces of Classic Maya Ceramics (Princeton: Princeton University Art Museum, 1978)
- Michael D. Coe, The Maya Scribe and His World (New York: The Grolier Club, 1973)
