Pair of Earflares600–900 CE

No image

Title: Pair of Earflares
Culture: Maya
Place Made: Mexico or Guatemala
Date Made: 600–900 CE
Medium: Greenstone
Dimensions: 1 13/16 x 1 13/16 in. Diameter: 1 13/16 in.
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Camilla Chandler Frost
Accession Number: M.2010.115.904a-b
Classification: Stone
Collecting Area: Art of the Ancient Americas
Curatorial Notes: Each earflare in this set consists of a solid piece of greenstone decorated on its face with arc-shaped greenstone tiles. Classic Maya peoples valued objects made of greenstone, above all jade, as embodiments of vital forces like breath, water, and maize. Commonly made of jade, or wood painted to resemble jade, earflares symbolize preciousness and wealth in Maya art. They would have been held against the ear with a beaded string, threaded through a perforation in the center of the ornament as well as a piercing in the ear, which acted as a counterweight. People depicted in Classic Maya art almost always wear ear ornaments, with captives serving as the rare exceptions, suggesting that earflares were a fundamental component of elite personhood.

Alyce de Carteret

2024
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.

No image

Title: Pair of Earflares
Culture: Maya
Place Made: Mexico or Guatemala
Date Made: 600–900 CE
Medium: Greenstone
Dimensions: 1 13/16 x 1 13/16 in. Diameter: 1 13/16 in.
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Camilla Chandler Frost
Accession Number: M.2010.115.904a-b
Classification: Stone
Collecting Area: Art of the Ancient Americas
Curatorial Notes: Each earflare in this set consists of a solid piece of greenstone decorated on its face with arc-shaped greenstone tiles. Classic Maya peoples valued objects made of greenstone, above all jade, as embodiments of vital forces like breath, water, and maize. Commonly made of jade, or wood painted to resemble jade, earflares symbolize preciousness and wealth in Maya art. They would have been held against the ear with a beaded string, threaded through a perforation in the center of the ornament as well as a piercing in the ear, which acted as a counterweight. People depicted in Classic Maya art almost always wear ear ornaments, with captives serving as the rare exceptions, suggesting that earflares were a fundamental component of elite personhood.

Alyce de Carteret

2024
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.