Tripod plate

A.D. 672–830

Object PlaceDepartment of Petén, Guatemala

Medium/TechniqueEarthenware: red, orange, and black on cream slip

DimensionsOverall: 14 x 33 cm (5 1/2 x 13 in.)

Credit LineMuseum purchase with funds donated by Lavinia and Landon T. Clay

Accession number2006.844

On View

On view

ClassificationsCeramics

Collections

Americas

Description

This rare plate portrays the Maize god dancing at Three-Stone-Place. The white cups symbolize the three stones, and the hearth's creative fire is rendered as a red circle on the underside of the plate.

ProvenanceAbout 1965, sold in Miami by Ella Castillo to Francis Robicsek, Charlotte, NC [see note 1]; December 6, 2005, consigned anonymously, Christie's, Paris (sale no. 5329), lot 450, unsold; 2006, sold by Dr. Robicsek, through Christie's, New York, to the MFA. (Accession Date: March 22, 2006)

NOTE:
When he consigned the plate through Christie's, Dr. Robicsek attested that he had purchased it around 1965 from Ella Castillo in Miami. The plate was later exhibited at the Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC, in 1980; tested at Brookhaven National Laboratories, 1981, as part of the Maya Survey database and given # MS0605; photographed by Justin Kerr, New York, before 1992 and given Kerr #5723.