Plaque Pendant of Enthroned Deity250–600 CE

On view:

Geffen Galleries

No image

Title: Plaque Pendant of Enthroned Deity
Culture: Maya
Place Made: Mexico or Guatemala
Date Made: 250–600 CE
Medium: Jadeite
Dimensions: 7 3/10 x 3 1/2 x 4/5 in. (18.542 x 8.89 x 2.032 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Camilla Chandler Frost
Accession Number: M.2010.115.169
Classification: Stone
Collecting Area: Art of the Ancient Americas
Curatorial Notes: This incised jadeite plaque bears the image of a seated deity wearing an elaborate feathered backrack. The backrack contains an early cosmogram: four rounded shapes, possibly earflares, mark the cardinal directions in a crosslike arrangement, while four intercardinal points mark the world’s four corners. Seated upon a stylized throne, the deity wears on his head an early version of what scholars call the “Quadripartite Badge,” a motif symbolically linked with the rising sun. The motif features three principal elements—a shell, a stingray spine, and a jewel—often nestled in a ceramic brazier or bowl used for ritual offerings, but in some instances it adorns deities, rulers, and other elite figures as a headdress assemblage. A perforation through the plaque indicates its use as a pendant. Ceremonial belts, worn by Classic Maya kings and dancers during public performances, included jade plaque pendants, which, with the movement of the body, would have rung out with a clamor.

Alyce de Carteret

2025
Selected Bibliography: Magaloni, Diana, Davide Domenici, and Alyce de Carteret. We Live in Painting: the Nature of Color in Mesoamerican Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2024.

Plaque Pendant of Enthroned Deity250–600 CE

On view:

Geffen Galleries

No image

Title: Plaque Pendant of Enthroned Deity
Culture: Maya
Place Made: Mexico or Guatemala
Date Made: 250–600 CE
Medium: Jadeite
Dimensions: 7 3/10 x 3 1/2 x 4/5 in. (18.542 x 8.89 x 2.032 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Camilla Chandler Frost
Accession Number: M.2010.115.169
Classification: Stone
Collecting Area: Art of the Ancient Americas
Curatorial Notes: This incised jadeite plaque bears the image of a seated deity wearing an elaborate feathered backrack. The backrack contains an early cosmogram: four rounded shapes, possibly earflares, mark the cardinal directions in a crosslike arrangement, while four intercardinal points mark the world’s four corners. Seated upon a stylized throne, the deity wears on his head an early version of what scholars call the “Quadripartite Badge,” a motif symbolically linked with the rising sun. The motif features three principal elements—a shell, a stingray spine, and a jewel—often nestled in a ceramic brazier or bowl used for ritual offerings, but in some instances it adorns deities, rulers, and other elite figures as a headdress assemblage. A perforation through the plaque indicates its use as a pendant. Ceremonial belts, worn by Classic Maya kings and dancers during public performances, included jade plaque pendants, which, with the movement of the body, would have rung out with a clamor.

Alyce de Carteret

2025
Selected Bibliography: Magaloni, Diana, Davide Domenici, and Alyce de Carteret. We Live in Painting: the Nature of Color in Mesoamerican Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2024.