Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Pair of Mosaic Ornaments
Not on view
For the monkey mosaics, various colored inlays represent the animals’ costume elements. In Maya art, howler monkeys are often shown as scribes and artisans, and here they may have symbolically advised their wearers by whispering in their ears, as did the ancestor or mythological being depicted on the shell disk (one of a pair).
Los artistas mayas transformaron con mucha habilidad materiales finos en preciosos adornos personales. En los mosaicos de monos aulladores, varias incrustaciones de colores representan las componentes del vestuario de los animales. En el arte maya, los monos aulladores muchas veces están representados como escribas y artesanos, y en este caso podrían estar aconsejando simbólicamente al personaje que los vestía, murmurándole al oído, tal como lo hacía el ancestro o el ser mitológico representado en el disco de concha (uno de dos).
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