On view
Art of the Ancient Americas
Vessel with two feline handles,
800–1000
Ulúa
Epiclassic Period
y1978-2
The art of ancient Honduras and El Salvador has long been considered in terms of its possible relationships to the more famous cultures of Mesoamerica. By the Early Formative period (1000–500 BCE), there is evidence of interaction with the Olmec of Mexico’s gulf coast and the southernmost Maya kingdom, centered at Copán, in northwest Honduras. Indeed, the people of this region were never isolated from their neighbors. For example, local artists adopted the tall, cylindrical form for chocolate-drinking vessels from the Maya, but their shorter marble vessels, also used for chocolate drinking, have no correlates in Mesoamerica. As more archaeological excavations are conducted in this region, scholars are learning that ancient Honduras and El Salvador had stronger cultural connections with peoples to the south and in the Caribbean than with Mesoamericans.
Information
Title
Vessel with two feline handles
Dates
800–1000
Medium
Travertine
Dimensions
13 × 21.5 × 14.6 cm (5 1/8 × 8 7/16 × 5 3/4 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Robert Wood Johnson Jr., Charitable Trust
Object Number
y1978-2
Place Made
North America, Honduras, Ulúa River Valley
Culture
Period
Type
Materials
Subject
By May 11, 1977, Alfred Stendahl (1915-2010), Hollywood, CA [1]; 1978, purchased by the Princeton University Art Museum.
Notes:
[1] Stendahl lent the work to the Museum in 1977 (L.1977.38).
- Hasso Von Winning and Alfred Stendahl, Pre-Columbian Art of Mexico and Central America, (New York: Abrams, 1968), pl. 304
-
"Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1971," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University, 31 no. 1 (1972): p. 20-32.
, p. 20 - "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1978," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 38, no. 1 (1979): p. 14-38., p. 28
