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Person seated on snake

Cylinder vase

750–770 AD
Object PlaceIk' polity, El Petén, Guatemala
Medium/TechniqueEarthenware with brown-black on cream slip, traces of orange slip
Dimensions14.8 x 13.3 cm (5 13/16 x 5 1/4 in.)
Credit LineGift of Landon T. Clay
Accession number1988.1175
On View
On view
ClassificationsCeramics
Collections
Description
The Maize god-perched on a saurian (a serpent-like, mythical being) symbolizing the supernatural realm-dons jewelry prior to ascending from the Underworld.
ProvenanceBetween about 1974 and 1981, probably purchased in Guatemala by John B. Fulling (b. 1924 – d. 2005), The Art Collectors of November, Inc., Pompano Beach, FL; May 20, 1987, sold by John B. Fulling to Landon T. Clay, Boston; 1988, year-end gift of Landon Clay to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 25, 1989)

NOTE: This is one in a group of Maya artifacts (MFA accession nos. 1988.1169 – 1988.1299) known as the “November Collection” after John Fulling’s company, the Art Collectors of November, Inc. John Fulling sold this group of objects to MFA donor Landon Clay in 1987, and they were given to the Museum the following year.
Evidence suggests that John Fulling built the November Collection from sources in Guatemala between 1974 and 1981. Only a portion of what he acquired during this time came to the MFA in 1988. It is not possible to determine precisely which objects were acquired when or from whom.