Multiple levels of the cosmos converge in this intricately painted plate. Emerging from the dark waters of a sinkhole, the rain god Chahk occupies center stage. Exuberant tendrils emerge from his head, terminating in personified flowers, a roaring jaguar, and a serpent. Celestial creatures reign above, including a bird and a crocodile-headed being in the upper right. Below, a partly effaced Maize God sprouts from the submerged rhizome of a water lily.
Plato trípode con escena mitológica México o Guatemala Siglo VII al VIII Cerámica, pigmento
Múltiples niveles del cosmos se muestran en este plato ricamente decorado. De las aguas negras de un pozo emerge Chahk, el dios de la lluvia, para ocupar el lugar central. En su cabeza hay brotes que terminan en flores personificadas, un jaguar que ruge y una serpiente. En lo alto reinan criaturas celestiales, entre las que se hallan un pájaro y un ser con cabeza de cocodrilo. Abajo, parcialmente borrado, el dios del maíz brota del rizoma sumergido de un lirio acuático.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Tripod plate with mythological scene
Date:7th–8th century
Geography:Guatemala or Mexico
Culture:Maya
Medium:Ceramic with red, cream, and black slip
Dimensions:Diam. 16 1/2 in. (41.9 cm)
Classification:Ceramics
Credit Line:Gift of the Mol Collection, 2021
Accession Number:2021.320
[Fine Arts of Ancient Lands, before 1981]; the Mol Collection, until 2021
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Taube, Karl A. The Major Gods of Ancient Yucatan. Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology, Vol. no. 32. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1992, fig. 4c.
Freidel, David A., Linda Schele, and Joy Parker. Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman's Path. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1993, fig. 2:23.
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Tokovinine, Alexandre. Place and Identity in Classic Maya Narratives. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2013, fig. 30a.
Kettunen, Harri, and Chrisophe Helmke. "Water in Maya Imagery and Writing." Contributions in New World Archaeology vol. 5 (2014), pp. 17–-38, fig. 7.
Martin, Simon. "The Old Man of the Maya Universe: A Unitary Dimension to Ancient Maya Religion." In Maya Archaeology 3, edited by Charles W. Golden, Stephen D. Houston, and Joel Skidmore. San Francisco: Precolumbia Mesoweb Press, 2015, pp. 186–227.
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Chinchilla Mazariegos, Oswaldo, James Doyle, and Joanne Pillsbury, eds. Lives of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2022, pp. 112–113, figs. 79A, 79B.
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