Maya News Updates, 2006, No. 38: New Maya Acquisition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (with Addendum)

Recently the LACMA acquired a well-known Classic Maya ceramic vessel painted by a master scribe-painter in so-called Codex Style. The vessel was a gift of the 2006 Collectors Committee. The following informative text comes from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art website (URL: www.lacma.org) (edited by Maya News Updates):

Latin American Art / Inventory Number M.2006.41
Mexico, Southern Campeche
Drinking Vessel, 600-800 A.D.
Ceramic with cream, red, and black slip
Height: 5 3/8 in. (13.65 cm); Diameter: 5 1/8 in. (13.02 cm)

"Elegantly painted ceramic vessels constituted the premier form of artistic expression during the Late Classic period (550–850 AD) of ancient Maya civilization, and none were more beautifully painted than those known as Codex Style. Named for their resemblance to the Maya codices, or painted books, codex style ceramics such as this drinking vessel depict highly esoteric scenes describing the fundamental concepts of Maya religious belief and practice and the special role of kings as participants in the supernatural realm. These concepts are embedded within a layered matrix of complex imagery and hieroglyphic writing that describe the ritual actions of rulers, who engaged with ancestors and supernatural beings in order to maintain the delicate balance of the cosmos.

Codex Style ceramics were produced for a very brief period in a restricted region of the Maya lowlands, encompassing southern Mexico and the northeastern corner of the Petén, Guatemala. Vessels are typically covered with a cream colored ground; red slip adorns the rim and basal bands and the imagery is painted with a fine black line. The figures portrayed on this vessel are rendered with the characteristic whiplash line that constitutes the most refined Maya painting on both ceramics and murals.

The content of Codex Style imagery is almost exclusively mythological or cosmological, and this vessel, acknowledged as the work of an extraordinary artist known as the Metropolitan Master, is no exception. The scene shows three sinister and otherworldly beings with both animal and human characteristics. They represent wayob’, the companion spirits of Maya rulers. These composite beings with their supernatural attributes share in the consciousness of the person who owns them, coming to life when the person is asleep in order to roam the world. Wayob’ may take the form of animate or inanimate beings, but are commonly depicted on Maya ceramics as powerful forest creatures.

On this vessel, the wayob’ include a plump toad wearing a jade bead necklace, a dashing jaguar with knotted scarf and deer antler, and a bearded serpent with a deer ear and a young man emerging from his opened jaws. The creatures, whose names appear in the brief texts adjacent to their images, signal a complex relationship between the supernatural realm and lineage ancestors, the powerful beings contacted by the living king to sustain the well-being of the human community. The vertical text describes the vessel as one used to drink cacao (chocolate), which was first cultivated by the Maya and whose consumption was the prerogative of royalty.

This vessel is recognized as one of the finest known in the Codex Style tradition. It provides complementary imagery to the rare fluted cylinder vessel (M.2005.131) in the pre-Columbian collection; together they present extraordinary insights into ancient Maya religious belief and royal performance in the words and images of the artists themselves."

Further comments by Maya News Updates: This important vessel was for instance illustrated in Michael D. Coe's 1978 "The Lords of the Underworld" (No. 3) and Francis Robicsek and Donald M. Hales' 1981 "The Maya Book of the Dead: The Ceramic Codex" (Vessel No. 33). The vessel has several short hieroglyphic texts.

The Standard Dedicatory Formula (SDF) on ceramics (or PSS, Primary Standard Sequence) can be transcribed as yu-k'i?-b'i ta-'IXIM? TE'-le ka-wa K'UH-cha-TAN-WINIK for yuk'ib' ta iximte'el [ka]kaw k'uh[ul] chatan winik "(it is) the drink-instrument for Iximte'-derived cacao of the Holy Man of Chatan". The three way characters are each named and associated through the uway statement with an ajaw "lord, king (probably lit. speaker)" title, providing a relationship between the way characters and (lines of successive) lords at different sites. The first is named Kilich(?) (?) Amal "Pure(?) (?) Toad(?)", who is the way of (?)te' Ajaw; the second is named K'intanal B'olay(?) "Sun-chested Feline", who is the way of K'uh[ul] Kan[al] Ajaw B'ak[ul]. The third is named Xukub'(?) Chih Cham(?), who is the way of K'uh[ul] Kan[al] Ajaw B'ak[ul]. As no personal names are mentioned one may conclude that two different way are associated with the holy lord (k'uhul ajaw) of Kanal (probably Calakmul at this time period). The final term b'ak[ul] may be a referent to "young one, child" (Yucatec Maya, [aj] b'aak "young child [niño, muchacho]").

The possible owner of the vessel was a K'uhul Chatan Winik, or Holy Man/Person of Chatan. This Chatan was an important center or political entity somewhere in the Greater El Mirador Basin. K'uhul Winik of this polity are mentioned from the Early Classic into the Late Classic at for instance Calakmul, Tikal, and a large selection of unprovenanced Codex Style ceramics. One provenanced Codex Style ceramic example occurs at Nakbe. Perhaps the people of Chatan even survived into the Colonial period, as just north of Lake Peten there was a group named the Ah Chata (Boot 2005 "Continuity and Change in Text and Image at Chichen Itza", Appendix B, pp. 505-516).

None of the lords mentioned on this vessel have a personal name, including the owner, they are just referred to through a generic ajaw or winik title. How the relationship between the way, the lords with which they were associated, and the owner of the vessel itself worked has to be researched in more detail and at greater length than this note permists.

Addendum (September 24, 2004): As Justin Kerr informs me, the vessel now at LACMA was photographed as a rollout in 1976 and before moving to LACMA was exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum (personal communication, September 22, 2006).

The following information of this vessel can be found at the website of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York (information may be removed in the near future):

Cylindrical Codex-Style Vase. Maya artist, circa a.d. 550–850. Probably Northern Peten, Guatemala. Ceramic, black and red pigment on cream slip. Brooklyn Museum, Anonymous Loan, L80.50.

The above photograph is an edited version of the B&W photograph as posted at the Brooklyn Museum information page. The vessel was part of the exhibition "Living Legacies".

Maya Object of the Month 2006, No. 1 (September) [Updated & Corrected]

In 1933 Erwin Dieseldorff published his third volume in the series "Kunst und Religion der Mayavölker." In this lavishly illustrated volume Dieseldorff published objects from his own collection, as well as objects from other (private) collections from both Guatemala and Mexico. The subject of this first Object of the Month served him in this publication as Tafel 7, Abbildung 10 (Plate 7, Figure 10). The private collection of which it was part is simply described as "Privatsammlung in Merida" (private collection in Merida), with no indication to whom the collection actually belonged (the photograph was taken by Prof. R. N. Wegner). Dieseldorff did not mention any other carving or incision on the vessel.

The vessel illustrates the upper torso or bust of a male human being, looking to our left side. As his headdress one can recognize the head of the Water Lily Jaguar (a jaguar head, on top of the head a water lily), as a nasal motif it has two bone-like tubes (Kettunen 2005: Fig. 56). The male individual portrayed has a simple "nose-fin" ornament (compare to Kettunen 2005: Fig. 58; Proskouriakoff 1950: Fig. 20) or "nose bridge extension" (Kettunen 2006: 182-183), that runs from his forehead to the tip of his nose. This kind of ornament is common at for instance the site of Palenque; a quick count of 96 complete human portrait heads provided 41 of these ornaments. Between his arms he holds a stylized water lily stem that terminates in a blossom on one side and the rhizome on the other. His portrait is placed within a curved element that carries aquatic and water lily related characteristics, one may refer to it as a water lily cartouche (Coe 1973: 120).

In April 1931 the artist M. Louise Baker was in Merida where she was allowed to make watercolor paintings of several exquisite ceramic objects in private collections (Danien 2006). One such collection contained a ceramic bowl of which Baker made a small thumbnail sketch, but also a detailed extension of the hieroglyphic text (Danien 2006: Figure G-7). At that time the vessel belonged to the collection of Oswaldo de Camara, Merida, Yucatan, which was in the possession of his widow, Doña Julia Peon de Camara.

The thumbnail sketch made by Baker is small, but it contains all the pertinent characteristics of the vessel photographically illustrated by Dieseldorff. Note a human bust inside a curved element, an elongated object strectched towards the upper right. If this is the same vessel, than the vessel illustrated by Dieseldorff probably was in the possession of Doña Julia Peon de Camara. Confirmation that the Diesseldorff vessel indeed was in the possession of the Camara family comes yet from another source. In 1913 Spinden published his "A Study of Maya Art". As his Figure 186 he illustrated the following bowl, allegedly from Calcehtok:

This is a drawing of the vessel that was published as a photograph in 1933 by Dieseldorff. The drawing used by Spinden was copied from a drawing "made at the expense of E. H. Thompson" (Spinden 1913: 136). The bowl at that time (thus before 1913) was in the possession of Don Enrique Camara, resident of Merida.

Back to the bowl itself. It would not be strange to expect a hieroglyphic text on the other side of the Dieseldorff vessel. The well-known catalog "The Maya Scribe and His World", edited and written by Michael D. Coe, contains several vessels with an iconographic scene on one side and a diagonal text on the other (Nos. 56-57, 59-61, 63-65). Three of these vessels depict a male human burst within a water lily cartouche (Nos. 59, 60, & 61). However, none of these vessels is the same as the (Spinden and) Dieseldorff vessel as pertinent detail in the portraits (nose bridge extensions included), Water Lily Headdress, and cartouche is different. If my identification is correct, the M. Louise Baker drawing is at present the only record of the hieroglyphic text belonging to the Dieseldorff vessel.

The hieroglyphic text of the Dieseldorff vessel, as drawn by Baker (turn drawing to the left for correct top to bottom reading order), can be transcribed as:

’u-ja-yi

yu-k’i?-b’i

ta-yu-ta

tzi-li-ka-wa

ke?-KELEM?-ma

sa-ja-la

[KAL]ma[TE’]

Provisional transliteration and translation: ujay yuk’ib’ ta yuta[l] tzi[hi]l [ka]kaw kelem(?) sajal kalomte’ "(it is) the clay cup (bowl), the drink-instrument for food(?) of tzi[hi]l kakaw of Kelem(?) Sajal Kalomte’."

Four of the vessels and hieroglyphic texts illustrated by Coe are very close to this particular text. The hieroglyphic text on Coe 1973: No. 59 can be transcribed as:

’u-ja-yi

yu-k’i?-b’i

ta-yu-ta

tzi-li-ka-wa

?-?-ma

sa-ja-la

b’a-ka-KAB’

Provisional transliteration and translation: ujay yuk’ib’ ta yuta[l] tzi[hi]l [ka]kaw kelem(??) sajal b’a[h]kab’ "(it is) the clay cup (bowl), the drink-instrument for food(?) of tzihil kakaw of Kelem(?) Sajal B’ahkab’."

The hieroglyphic text on Coe 1973: No. 60 can be transcribed as:

yu-k’i?-b’i

ti-tzi-hi

li

ka-wa

ke?-KELEM?-ma

sa-ja-la

’u-yu-la

Provisional transliteration and translation: yuk’ib’ ti tzihil [ka]kaw kelem(?) sajal u-yul "(it is) the drink-instrument for tzihil kakaw of Kelem(?) Sajal, (it is) his work."

The hieroglyphic text on Coe 1973: No. 63 (Kerr No. 4467) can be transcribed as:

yu-k’i?-b’i

ta-tzi-hi

ka-wa

ke?-KELEM?-ma

sa-ja-la

’u-yu-lu-li

Provisional transliteration and translation: yuk’ib’ ta tzihi[l] [ka]kaw kelem(?) sajal u-yulul[il] "(it is) the drink-instrument for tzihil kakaw of Kelem(?) Sajal, (it is) his work."

The hieroglyphic text on Coe 1973: No. 64 can be transcribed as:

’u-ja-yi

yu-k’i?-b’i

ti-tzi-hi

CHAK-ch’o-ko

ke?-KELEM?-ma

sa-ja-la

Provisional transliteration and translation: ujay yuk’ib’ ti tzihi[l kakaw] chakch’ok kelem(?) sajal "(it is) the clay cup (bowl), the drink-instrument for tzihi[l kakaw] of Chakch’ok Kelem(?) Sajal."

Related to this group of vessels is Kerr No. 7146, which depicts a conch blowing dwarf positioned streched out over a large water lily pad, placed above the skeletized seed from which emerges the roots and blossom of the water lily.

The diagonal text can be transcribed:

yu-k’i?-b’i

ta-tzi-hi

ka-wa

sa-ja-la

’u-yu-lu-li

b’a-ka-KAB’

Provisional transliteration and translation: yuk’ib’ ti tzihi[l] [ka]kaw sajal u-yulul[il] b’a[h[kab’ "(it is) the drink-instrument for tzihi[l] kakaw of Sajal, (it is) the work of B’ahkab’."

Including the Dieseldorff vessel, there are thus four vessels that depict a similar male human bust within a water lily cartouche. The dedicatory texts on these vessels provide a reference to the vessel type (jay "clay cup [bowl]") and its function (uk’ib’ "drink-instrument"), the contents (ta yuta[l] tzi[hi]l [ka]kaw, ti tzihil [ka]kaw, etc.), and a title phrase Kelem(?) Sajal Kalomte’, Kelem(?) Sajal B’ahkab’, Kelem(?) Sajal, and Chakch’ok Kelem(?) Sajal. Provisionally these titles can be translated, paraphrased, or interpreted as: kelem "strong one; youth", sajal "tribute collector(?)" (Boot 2005: 385-386), kalomte’ "?", b’ahkab’ "First/Head/Top of the World", and chakch’ok "great next-in-line." Perhaps no personal name was recorded as the bust on one side and the titular phrases on the other were clear indicators of the identity of the possible owner of the vessel(s). The phrases Kelem(?) Sajal Kalomte’ (Dieseldorff Vessel) and Kelem(?) Sajal B’ahkab’ (Coe 1973: No. 59) now need to be explained. There are no other examples known of a Sajal who carries a title Kalomte’ or B’ahkab’. Probably these are abbreviated phrases comparable to Sajal uyulul[il] B’ahkab’ (Kerr No. 7146): the part uyulul[il] "(it is) the work of ..." was not written. A similar abbreviation also takes place in the vessel contents, as kakaw can be left out (this would explain the solitary tzihi[l]). If correctly deduced, the Sajal(s) mentioned on these vessels thus was (were) never a Kalomte’ or B’a[h]kab’. Supreme titles like these were only taken by the most paramount lords in both the southern and the northern Maya lowlands.

The Dieseldorff vessel may one day surface, either in Merida or in some private or public collection inside or outside of Mexico. I do have two photographs of this vessel in my archive (with no indication were the photograhs were taken), but only from the portrait side (and of less quality than the Diesseldorff image or Spinden drawing). When surfaced, my suggestion that the Dieseldorff vessel image and the Baker drawing provide images of two sides of the same vessel may be verified or falsified. Unfortunately, many ceramics that were in local Yucatecan collections may have migrated to private collections outside of Yucatan and Mexico. The reason for this process was the passing of a law by the state in the early 1930’s through which privately owned archaeological and manuscript collections were confiscated and would be transfered to the newly established Museo del Estado de Yucatan in Merida (since 1980 known as Museo Regional de Arqueología e Historia de Yucatán and based at the Palacio Cantón, Paseo de Montejo y Calle 43 [Centro], in Mérida). Instead of all privately owned archaeological objects being transfered to the museum, many collections went into hiding, and some of the objects (including manuscripts) in these collections moved to new owners inside and outside of Mexico. The passing of the above mentioned law and the fact that collections went into hiding probably prompted Dieseldorff to refer to the collection in Merida to which the vessel belonged simply as "privatsammlung", private collection, without the addition of a name.

References

Coe, Michael D.

1973 The Maya Scribe and His World. New York: The Grolier Club.

Danien, Elin C.

2006 Paintings of Maya Pottery: The Art and Career of M. Louise Baker. FAMSI report. Available online at Famsi.org.

Dieseldorff, Erwin

1933 Kunst und Religion der Mayavölker 3. Hamburg: L. Friederichsen.

Kettunen, Harri

2005 Nasal Motifs in Maya Iconography. Helsinki: Helsinki University.

Kettunen, Harri

2006 Nasal Motifs in Maya Iconography. Helsinki: Helsinki University. 2nd Edition. Available online at Wayeb.org.

Proskouriakoff, Tatiana

1950 A Study of Classic Maya Sculpture. CIW Publication 593. Washington: CIW.

Spinden, Herbert J.

1913 A Study of Maya Art. Peabody Museum, Harvard University. Reprint edition by Dover [1975].