Interpretation
Portraits of two men in ceremonial dance costumes appear on this stone drinking cup. Each holds an oversized eyeball staff, with the optical nerve serving as the handle; both figures don animal masks, presented in cut-away fashion to reveal the men within. The accompanying hieroglyphs explicitly identify the figure with his torso depicted frontally as Yax Pasaj Chan Yopaat (First Dawn of the Sky Penis), the sixteenth king of the kingdom of Copan, in northern Honduras, who ruled from A.D. 763 to 820. The other, unidentified dancer may have been the original recipient of the commemorative vessel.
The calligraphic incisions, filled with cinnabar, boldly contrast with the smooth, almost luminescent onyx marble surface of this carved vessel. The imagery presents two men dressed in ceremonial dance costumes. Each holds an oversized, distended eyeball staff, with the optical nerve serving as the handle. Both figures don animal masks, presented in cut-away fashion to reveal the identities of the men within. The accompanying hieroglyphs explicitly identify the figure with his torso depicted frontally as Yax Pasaj Chan Yoaat, the sixteenth ruler of the Maya city-state of Copán, in northern Honduras, who ruled from A.D. 763-820, suggesting a likely era for the production of this vessel. The other, unidentified dancer, presumably subject to Yax Pasaj, may have been the original recipient of the commemorative vessel. The text documents that the dance occurred "in the ballcourt," possibly a reference to the ballcourt in the central plaza of Copán.
Information
- Title
- Stone drinking cup
- Object Number
- 2002-370
- Medium
- Travertine with cinnabar (at least some modern)
- Dates
- 763–820 CE
- Dimensions
- h. 16.3 cm., diam. 15.4 cm. (6 7/16 x 6 1/16 in.)
- Catalog Raisonné
- K3296
- Credit Line
- Anonymous gift in honor of the Class of 2004
- Culture
- Late Classic
Maya
- Period
- Classic
- Place made
- North America, Honduras, Maya area, Copán
- Materials
- Techniques
By 1988, US private collection [1]; 2002, anonymous gift to the Princeton University Art Museum.
Notes:
[1] This object was on loan to the Princeton University Art Museum from 1988 until its gift in 2002 (L.1988.73).
- Jill Guthrie, ed., In celebration: works of art from the Collections of Princeton Alumni and Friends of The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 1997)., p. 81, cat. no. 78 (illus.)
- Michael D. Coe and Justin Kerr, The Art of the Maya Scribe (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1997)., pls. 97–8, pp. 202–203 (illus.)
- E. Michael Whittington, ed., The sport of life and death: the Mesoamerican ballgame (New York: Thames & Hudson, 2001)., p. 251
- "Acquisitions of the Princeton University Art Museum 2002," Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 62 (2003): p. 107-161., p. 158 (illus.)
- Adam Herring, Art and Writing in the Maya Cities, AD 600–800: A Poetics of Line (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005)., p. 205
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 127 (illus.)
- Matthew G. Looper, To Be Like Gods: Dance in Ancient Maya Civilization (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2009)., fig. 2.1 (illus.); pp. 47–49, ff
- Julie Nehammer Knub, Simone Thun, and Christophe Helmke, "The Divine Right of Kings: An Analysis of Classic Maya Impersonation Statements," from The Maya and Their Sacred Narratives: Text and Context in Maya Mythologies, ed. Genevieve Le Fort (Markt Schwaben: Verlag Anton Saurwein, 2009), Acta mesoamericana 20 (2007): 177-196., p. 192, discussion of discrepency between costume and named deity (Hukte' Ju'n Ajaw).
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013)
- Alejandra Martínez de Velasco Cotrina and María Elena Vega Villalobos, eds. The Maya: Voices in Stone, 2nd ed. (Mexico City; Madrid: Turner/Ámbar Diseño, A´mbar Disen~o: Universidad Nacional Auto´noma de Me´xico: Turner, 2015)., fig. 160 (illus.)
- An Educated Eye: The Princeton University Art Museum Collection (Friday, February 22, 2008 - Sunday, June 15, 2008)
- The Sport of Life and Death: The Mesoamerican Ballgame: Mint Museum of Art (22 Sept., 2001 – 6 Jan., 2002); New Orleans Museum of Art (16 Feb. – 28 Apr. 2002); Joslyn Art Museum (8 Jun. – 1 Sept., 2002); Newark Museum (1 Oct. – 1 Dec., 2002).
- In Celebration: Works of Art from the Collections of Princeton Alumni and Friends of the Art Museum (Saturday, February 22, 1997 - Sunday, June 08, 1997)
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