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Cylinder vase

A.D. 755–780

Place of ManufactureMotul de San José area, El Petén, Guatemala

Medium/TechniqueEarthenware: red, orange, ochre, brown, gray (originally green), and black on cream slip paint

Dimensions22.5 x 12 cm (8 7/8 x 4 3/4 in.)

Credit LineGift of Landon T. Clay

Accession number1988.1168

On View

On view

ClassificationsCeramics

Collections

Americas

Description

This vase is considered one of the finest examples of Maya painting. The artist's mastery of the watercolor-like quality of slip paint is particularly remarkable here. Notice the subtle washes on the bodies, extremely difficult to achieve with clay-based paints.The scene depicts the birth of the Maize god, flanked by a supernatural with jaguar attributes and another with Sun-god features. The white umbilical cord that unifies the scene also encouraged the viewer to rotate the vase. The hieroglyphic text records the birth's mythological date and supernatural locale, Na-Ho-Chan (Five Sky House).

ProvenanceSeptember 12, 1977, sold by Dina Fernandez Garcia, Guatemala City, to 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 vessel, known as "The Black Vase," was first published by Francis Robicsek, A Study in Maya Art and History: The Mat Symbol (New York, 1975), p. 167, fig. 153, no ownership information given. It 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.