Drinking Cup with Celestial Deities600–900 CE

Not on view

Tall cylindrical Maya ceramic vessel with polychrome painted decoration in rust red, dark brown, and cream, featuring figural scene and glyph bands

Cylindrical Maya ceramic vessel with polychrome slip painting in red, orange, and cream tones; a seated figure in elaborate headdress occupies the central register, flanked by standing figures, with a band of hieroglyphic glyphs along the lower border and red geometric banding at the rim.

Maya ceramic cylinder vessel with painted figural scene in red, orange, and cream; a seated figure with elaborate headdress faces a standing figure, framed by glyphic bands at top and bottom.

Maya ceramic cylinder vessel with painted figural scene in red, orange, and cream. Standing and seated figures in elaborate headdresses and regalia appear in the central register, framed by hieroglyphic bands at top and bottom. Surface shows areas of wear.

Maya ceramic cylinder vessel with polychrome slip-painted figural scene in orange, red, black, and cream; standing figures in elaborate headdresses and regalia encircle the body, framed by glyph bands at top and bottom.

Cylindrical Maya ceramic vessel with painted figural scenes in red, orange, black, and cream; seated figure at left and standing figure at right, separated by a column of circular dots; red glyph bands at top and bottom rim.

Title: Drinking Cup with Celestial Deities
Culture: Maya
Place Made: Mexico or Guatemala, Southern Lowlands
Date Made: 600–900 CE
Medium: Engobe-painted earthenware
Dimensions: Overall (Diameter): 10 × 3 13/16 in. (25.4 × 9.65 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Camilla Chandler Frost
Accession Number: M.2010.115.628
Classification: Ceramics
Collecting Area: Art of the Ancient Americas
Curatorial Notes: A gathering of celestial deities envelops this Classic Maya cylinder vessel. The moon goddess presides over the scene, an underworld deity kneeling before her. He has been stripped of his regalia, which the moon’s rabbit companion now clutches in his arms. Behind this humiliated god stand four lunar deities who govern the movement of the moon. Though enigmatic, the scene depicts a pivotal moment in the formation of the cosmos. The defeat of this underworld deity by the celestial gods creates order and allows the cyclic movement of the celestial bodies to commence.

Alyce de Carteret

2024
Selected Bibliography: Chinchilla Mazariegos, Oswaldo. Imágenes de la Mitología Maya. Guatemala City: Museo Popol Vuh, 2011.
Tokovinine, Alexandre, and Dmitri Beliaev. "People of the Road: Traders and Travelers in Ancient Maya Words and Images." Merchants, Markets, and Exchange in the Pre-Columbian World, edited by Kenneth G. Hirth and Joanne Pillsbury, 169-200. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 2013.
Houston, Stephen D., David Stuart, and Karl A. Taube. The Memory of Bones: Body, Being, and Experience Among the Classic Maya. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006.
Bernatz, Michele M.. "Redefining God L: The Spatial Realm of a Maya 'Earth Lord'." In Maya Imagery, Architecture, and Activity: Space and Spatial Analysis in Art History, edited by Maline D. Wernes-Rude and Kaylee R. Spencer, 140-177. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2015.
Bassie-Sweet, Karen. Maya Sacred Geography and the Creator Deities. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2008.
Zender, Marc, and Joel Skidmore. "Unearthing the Heavens: Classic Maya Murals and Astronomical Tables at Xultun, Guatemala." Mesoweb Reports, 2012. http://www.mesoweb.com/reports/Xultun.pdf.
Beukers, Laura. "The Maya Ceramic Book of Creation: The Trials of the Popul Vuh Hero Twins Displayed on Classic Polychrome Painted Pottery." Master's diss., University of Leiden, 2013.
Zender, Marc. "On the Reading of Three Classic Maya Portrait Glyphs." The PARI Journal 15, no.2 (2014): 1-14.
O'Neil, Megan E. Forces of Nature: Ancient Maya Arts from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Beijing Shi: Wen wu chu ban she, 2018.
Magaloni Kerpel, Diana, and Megan E. O'Neil, editors. The Science and Art of Maya Painted Ceramic Vessels: Contextualizing a Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2022. https://www.archive.org/details/maya-painted-ceramic-vessels (accessed November 21, 2022).
Chinchilla Mazariegos, Oswaldo, James A. Doyle, and Joanne Pillsbury, editors. Lives of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2022.

Drinking Cup with Celestial Deities600–900 CE

Not on view

Title: Drinking Cup with Celestial Deities
Culture: Maya
Place Made: Mexico or Guatemala, Southern Lowlands
Date Made: 600–900 CE
Medium: Engobe-painted earthenware
Dimensions: Overall (Diameter): 10 × 3 13/16 in. (25.4 × 9.65 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Camilla Chandler Frost
Accession Number: M.2010.115.628
Classification: Ceramics
Collecting Area: Art of the Ancient Americas
Curatorial Notes: A gathering of celestial deities envelops this Classic Maya cylinder vessel. The moon goddess presides over the scene, an underworld deity kneeling before her. He has been stripped of his regalia, which the moon’s rabbit companion now clutches in his arms. Behind this humiliated god stand four lunar deities who govern the movement of the moon. Though enigmatic, the scene depicts a pivotal moment in the formation of the cosmos. The defeat of this underworld deity by the celestial gods creates order and allows the cyclic movement of the celestial bodies to commence.

Alyce de Carteret

2024
Selected Bibliography: Chinchilla Mazariegos, Oswaldo. Imágenes de la Mitología Maya. Guatemala City: Museo Popol Vuh, 2011.
Tokovinine, Alexandre, and Dmitri Beliaev. "People of the Road: Traders and Travelers in Ancient Maya Words and Images." Merchants, Markets, and Exchange in the Pre-Columbian World, edited by Kenneth G. Hirth and Joanne Pillsbury, 169-200. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 2013.
Houston, Stephen D., David Stuart, and Karl A. Taube. The Memory of Bones: Body, Being, and Experience Among the Classic Maya. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006.
Bernatz, Michele M.. "Redefining God L: The Spatial Realm of a Maya 'Earth Lord'." In Maya Imagery, Architecture, and Activity: Space and Spatial Analysis in Art History, edited by Maline D. Wernes-Rude and Kaylee R. Spencer, 140-177. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2015.
Bassie-Sweet, Karen. Maya Sacred Geography and the Creator Deities. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2008.
Zender, Marc, and Joel Skidmore. "Unearthing the Heavens: Classic Maya Murals and Astronomical Tables at Xultun, Guatemala." Mesoweb Reports, 2012. http://www.mesoweb.com/reports/Xultun.pdf.
Beukers, Laura. "The Maya Ceramic Book of Creation: The Trials of the Popul Vuh Hero Twins Displayed on Classic Polychrome Painted Pottery." Master's diss., University of Leiden, 2013.
Zender, Marc. "On the Reading of Three Classic Maya Portrait Glyphs." The PARI Journal 15, no.2 (2014): 1-14.
O'Neil, Megan E. Forces of Nature: Ancient Maya Arts from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Beijing Shi: Wen wu chu ban she, 2018.
Magaloni Kerpel, Diana, and Megan E. O'Neil, editors. The Science and Art of Maya Painted Ceramic Vessels: Contextualizing a Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2022. https://www.archive.org/details/maya-painted-ceramic-vessels (accessed November 21, 2022).
Chinchilla Mazariegos, Oswaldo, James A. Doyle, and Joanne Pillsbury, editors. Lives of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2022.