On view
Art of the Ancient Americas
Tripod uk’ib (drinking cup) depicting a mythological scene,
650–750
Maya (Codex style)
Late Classic Period
y1986-98
This vessel presents a mythological event that scholars have not been able to interpret fully even though the figures are recognizable and the hieroglyphs are legible. Chahk, the rain god, wields an axe in one hand and a handstone in the other; his axe was thought to produce the crack of lightning and his stone rumbling thunder. Behind him sits a jaguar, holding one paw to his head in a gesture of mourning. A firefly, holding a flaming torch, floats above the jaguar. The large stylized head before Chahk represents Flower Mountain, a source of sustenance and vitality. Along the mountain’s curling snout tumbles a humanoid infant with a jaguar’s tail. A skeletal death god gestures clumsily toward the baby. Just above the death god’s hands floats a brief hieroglyphic text, recording that “K’awiil was grasped” on a particular day. K’awiil is a supernatural manifestation of ancestral power and royal legitimacy.
Information
Title
Tripod uk’ib (drinking cup) depicting a mythological scene
Dates
650–750
Medium
Ceramic with red and brown slip-paint
Dimensions
h. 12.1 cm., diam. 13.6 cm. (4 3/4 x 5 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund
Object Number
y1986-98
Place Made
North America, Guatemala, Petén, Maya area, Nakbé region
Reference Numbers
K1003
MS1405
MS1405
Culture
Period
Materials
[Possibly Sotheby's, NY]. Purchased by the Princeton University Art Museum, 1986.
- Francis Robiscek, The Maya Book of the Dead: The Ceramic Codex (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Art Museum, 1981)., fig. 22a, p. 121 (illus.)
- Francis Robicsek, et al., The World Beyond: Maya Tomb Ceramics, Epcot Center Exhibition Catalogue (Orlando, Walt Disney Productions, 1984). , fig. 50
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1986," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 46, no. 1 (1987): p. 18–52, p. 22 (illus.)
- Barbara Kerr and Justin Kerr, "Some Observations on Maya Vase Painters," in Maya Iconography, eds. Elizabeth P. Benson and Gillett G. Griffin (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988)., figs. 7.11b and 7.13b, pp. 236–259 (illus.)
- Francis Robicsek and Donald Hales, "A Ceramic Codex Fragment: The Sacrifice of Xbalanque," in Maya Iconography, eds. Elizabeth P. Benson and Gillett G. Griffin (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988): 260-276., fig. 8.3, pp. 260–276 (illus.)
- Joanne M. Spero, "Beyond Rainstorms: The Kawak as an Ancestor, Warrior, and Patron of Witchcraft," in Sixth Palenque Round Table, 1986, Volume VIII, ed. Merle Greene Robertson (Normal: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991): 145-155., fig. 12 (illus.)
- Ana García Barrios, "Chaahk, el Dios de la Lluvia, en el Periodo Clásico Maya: Aspectos Religiosos y Políticos" (PhD diss. unpublished, Universidad Compultense de Madrid, 2008)., fig. 1.79b (illus.)
