Detail View: The AMICA Library: Spouted Vessel
|
AMICA ID:
|
MMA_.1999.484.3
|
|
AMICA Library Year:
|
2002
|
|
Object Type:
|
Decorative Arts and Utilitarian Objects
|
|
Description:
|
The complex design on the body of this vessel includes a figure on each side, one facing up, the other down. The identification of the figures is uncertain, although elements of "wind" and "maize" are present. Sinuous, volutelike masses nearly overwhelm the figures: only their heads, hands, and feet can be easily discerned in the rhythmical rendering of the composition. The specificity of these figures contrasts with the repetitive abstraction of the rim decoration, with in-curving spiral brackets and a T-shape motif that may be an early form of the Maya hieroglyph for wind. A hieroglyphic inscription appears on the spout; while not fully deciphered, it contains a dedication of the vessel. Carved from indurated (compacted) limestone, the vessel is a rare example of such a spouted container in stone. Exceptional works in stone of this sort are identified with the Mexico-Guatemala highlands during the centuries when the great sites of Kaminaljuyú and Izapa flourished.
|
|
Creator Nationality:
|
North American; Central American; Mesoamerican; Mayan
|
|
Creator Name-CRT:
|
Maya
|
|
Title:
|
Spouted Vessel
|
|
View:
|
Principal view
|
|
Creation Date:
|
1st century B.C.?1st century A.D.
|
|
Creation Start Date:
|
-100
|
|
Creation End Date:
|
99
|
|
Materials and Techniques:
|
Indurated limestone
|
|
Creation Place:
|
Mexico or Guatemala
|
|
Dimensions:
|
H. 5 in. (12.7 cm)
|
|
AMICA Contributor:
|
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
|
|
Owner Location:
|
New York, New York
|
|
ID Number:
|
1999.484.3
|
|
Credit Line:
|
Gift of Charles and Valerie Diker, 1999
|
|
Copyright:
|
Copyright ? 2002 The Metropolitan Museum of Art . All rights reserved.
|
|
Rights:
|
|
|
Related Image Identifier Link:
|
MMA_.h1_1999.484.3.tif
|