Silhouette Sculpture of Animate Storm and Mountain100–200 CE

Not on view

Title: Silhouette Sculpture of Animate Storm and Mountain
Culture: Maya
Place Made
Date Made: 100–200 CE
Medium: Basalt with pigment
Dimensions: 45 x 16 x 2 in. (114.3 x 40.64 x 5.08 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Camilla Chandler Frost
Accession Number: M.2010.115.813
Classification: Stone
Collecting Area: Art of the Ancient Americas
Curatorial Notes: Thunderstorms swirling around mountain peaks are a familiar sight in the highlands of Guatemala, where artists from the early Maya site of Kaminaljuyu made this sculpture, a depiction of a highland storm in animate form. Two figures, a storm deity crouched atop a personified mountain-cave with mouth open wide, have been carved in low-relief basalt. The storm deity has both feline and aquatic attributes, characteristic of early Mesoamerican deities associated with rain and lightning: jaguar paws and a tail, a finned head and fish barbels, and an upturned serpentine snout. Wind and lightning emanate in a swirl from his bared teeth. Below him, his perch opens its maw to reveal curling fangs and a glyph that means “darkness,” attributes of the mountain-cave, an important site of creation in the Maya world. A similar scene features in the story of the Maya maize deity, who emerges reborn from the underworld when the rain deity cleaves a mountain in two, an event often depicted as lightning striking a mountain.

Silhouetted reliefs like these, featuring one face with elaborate bas-relief punctuated by cutouts, is an iconic Kaminaljuyu tradition. This monument would have stood in public view, the uncarved portion of its base set into the ground.

Alyce de Carteret

2024
Selected Bibliography: 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.

Silhouette Sculpture of Animate Storm and Mountain100–200 CE

Not on view

Title: Silhouette Sculpture of Animate Storm and Mountain
Culture: Maya
Place Made
Date Made: 100–200 CE
Medium: Basalt with pigment
Dimensions: 45 x 16 x 2 in. (114.3 x 40.64 x 5.08 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Camilla Chandler Frost
Accession Number: M.2010.115.813
Classification: Stone
Collecting Area: Art of the Ancient Americas
Curatorial Notes: Thunderstorms swirling around mountain peaks are a familiar sight in the highlands of Guatemala, where artists from the early Maya site of Kaminaljuyu made this sculpture, a depiction of a highland storm in animate form. Two figures, a storm deity crouched atop a personified mountain-cave with mouth open wide, have been carved in low-relief basalt. The storm deity has both feline and aquatic attributes, characteristic of early Mesoamerican deities associated with rain and lightning: jaguar paws and a tail, a finned head and fish barbels, and an upturned serpentine snout. Wind and lightning emanate in a swirl from his bared teeth. Below him, his perch opens its maw to reveal curling fangs and a glyph that means “darkness,” attributes of the mountain-cave, an important site of creation in the Maya world. A similar scene features in the story of the Maya maize deity, who emerges reborn from the underworld when the rain deity cleaves a mountain in two, an event often depicted as lightning striking a mountain.

Silhouetted reliefs like these, featuring one face with elaborate bas-relief punctuated by cutouts, is an iconic Kaminaljuyu tradition. This monument would have stood in public view, the uncarved portion of its base set into the ground.

Alyce de Carteret

2024
Selected Bibliography: 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.