On view
Art of the Ancient Americas
Portrait head,
600–800
Maya
Late Classic Period
y1979-12
Secondary noblemen are regular subjects of Maya art, with costumes and proportions that signal their particular social roles. The man wearing a tight vest while wielding a shield is a warrior, while the diminutive proportions of the figure to the right suggest a dwarf, an important court official. While the elegantly proportioned heads carved from shells at lower left likely reference lords, the central figure, who sits on a throne, is a sahal, a type of secondary noble, as confirmed by hieroglyphic captions on other examples. The rightmost figure is a musician with swirling song emanating from his mouth.
Information
Title
Portrait head
Dates
600–800
Medium
Queen conch (Lobatus gigas)
Dimensions
3 × 2 × 1.2 cm (1 3/16 × 13/16 × 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Robert Wood Johnson 1962 Charitable Trust
Object Number
y1979-12
Place Collected
North America, Mexico, Campeche, Maya area, Jaina Island or vicinity
Culture
Period
Materials
Subject
January 10, 1978, Alphonse Jax, New York, sold to the Princeton University Art Museum [1].
Notes:
[1] According to a Jax invoice in the curatorial file.
