Guatemala, El Peten, Classic Maya
250 to 900 AD
Modeled lime stucco
Height: 5⅛ in
Provenance: Wally and Brenda Zollman, Indianapolis, Indiana. Appraised by New World Art Services, March 4, 1997, for $8,500
Publication: The Face of Ancient America, The Wally and Brenda Zollman Collection of Pre Columbian Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1989, David Joralemon and others, page 122, number 83
Exhibition: Indianapolis Museum of Art, December 3, 1988 to February 26, 1989; The Indiana Museum of Art, Bloomington, June 13 to September 10, 1989
This modeled stucco figure depicts a man wearing a bird headdress astride the back of a four footed creature, an image identified by scholar David Joralemon as a peccary based on its stubby legs, small eye, and blunt snout. Joralemon connected the subject to Maya iconography of the god Itzamna, known from codex style vessels riding a peccary in an identical bareback posture, and to a related finial in the Dallas Museum of Art collection. The Maya word for peccary, chitam, appears in accompanying texts on related vessels, supporting the identification of a minor deity associated with this animal.
The figure was designed to rest on a curved base, with the rider staring intently ahead while gripping the mount with both hands. The piece was published in The Face of Ancient America, the catalogue of the Zollman collection of Pre Columbian art, and exhibited at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Indiana Museum of Art in Bloomington in 1988 and 1989. Its documented Zollman provenance and publication history place it among a well recorded body of Classic Maya stucco sculpture.
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Guatemala, El Peten, Classic Maya
250 to 900 AD
Modeled lime stucco
Height: 5⅛ in
Provenance: Wally and Brenda Zollman, Indianapolis, Indiana. Appraised by New World Art Services, March 4, 1997, for $8,500
Publication: The Face of Ancient America, The Wally and Brenda Zollman Collection of Pre Columbian Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1989, David Joralemon and others, page 122, number 83
Exhibition: Indianapolis Museum of Art, December 3, 1988 to February 26, 1989; The Indiana Museum of Art, Bloomington, June 13 to September 10, 1989
This modeled stucco figure depicts a man wearing a bird headdress astride the back of a four footed creature, an image identified by scholar David Joralemon as a peccary based on its stubby legs, small eye, and blunt snout. Joralemon connected the subject to Maya iconography of the god Itzamna, known from codex style vessels riding a peccary in an identical bareback posture, and to a related finial in the Dallas Museum of Art collection. The Maya word for peccary, chitam, appears in accompanying texts on related vessels, supporting the identification of a minor deity associated with this animal.
The figure was designed to rest on a curved base, with the rider staring intently ahead while gripping the mount with both hands. The piece was published in The Face of Ancient America, the catalogue of the Zollman collection of Pre Columbian art, and exhibited at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Indiana Museum of Art in Bloomington in 1988 and 1989. Its documented Zollman provenance and publication history place it among a well recorded body of Classic Maya stucco sculpture.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
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