On view
Enthroned lord,
600–800
More Context
Jaina is an island located off the coast of Campeche. It has not been established why so many figures of this form have been found there, but it is clear that they were originally created at a number of lowland Maya sites and then transported to the island for redeposition. The figures seem to have been included in burials, but it is not known if they were intended to depict the interred individual or his companions in life. This image depicts a prominent lord seated on a throne. He has massive solid legs, balanced by oversized hands and feet. His intentionally elongated forehead no doubt was meant to be covered by a large headdress, possibly including a mask, which is now lost. This cranial form only slightly exaggerates the intentional shaping produced on the heads of noble infants for aesthetic reasons. The earflares, with long central shafts, reflect his high status. They represent flowers and symbolize the positive quality of the lord's hearing through a cross-sensory allusion to pleasant, fragrant smells. The collar and flaps worn about the neck and shoulders may represent a form of armor--consisting of unspun cotton, a material well suited to deflecting hurled spears--suggesting that this individual was a warrior. He wears the standard male loincloth and hip skirt below. The throne was created separately by rolling out a slab of clay and modeling wedge-shaped legs resembling the stone forms of surviving examples excavated at palaces throughout the Maya region. At the back of the throne, an attendant dwarf is depicted in cutout and silhouetted low relief, surrounded by billowing swirls of smoke or vegetation. The seat of the throne is covered in what appears to be the pelt of a jaguar, whose head and feet jut out at the lateral edges.
More About This Object
Information
600–800
North America, Mexico, Campeche, Maya area, Jaina Island or vicinity
September 15, 1962, Aaron Furman Gallery, New York, sold to Gillett G. Griffin (1928-2016), Princeton, NJ [1]; 1986, gift to the Princeton University Art Museum.
Notes:
[1] According to a Furman invoice in the curatorial file. This is also confirmed in Griffin’s index (M2)
- Mary Ellen Miller, Jaina Figurines: A Study of Maya Iconography (Princeton: The Princeton University Art Museum, 1975)., fig. 21 (illus.)
- Linda Schele and Mary E. Miller, The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art (New York and Fort Worth, George Braziller, Inc. and Kimbell Art Museum, 1986)., pl. 93, p. 228 (illus.)
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1986," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 46, no. 1 (1987): p. 18–52, p. 46
- Linda Schele, Hidden Faces of the Maya (Poway: ALTI Publishing, 1997)., pl. 23, p. 116 (illus.)
- Mary E. Miller and Simon Martin, Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya (San Francisco: Fine Arts Museum of San Fransisco, 2004)., pl. 13, p. 42 (illus., image reversed)
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 265 (illus.)
- Donald McVicker, "Figurines Are Us? The Social Organization of Jaina Island, Campeche, Mexico," in Ancient Mesoamerica 23, no. 2 (Fall, 2012): p. 211-234., p. 225 (illus.)
