Currently not on view

Dignitary

2000-318
This figure’s demeanor, feathered cape, turban, and slight paunch attest to his noble status. Although such figurines once were thought to be portraits, more recent scholarship has suggested that they instead present stock social types and courtly positions. Punctures in the clay represent a delicate design on the loincloth, which may have been sheer gauze. The open mouth, large chest, and expansive gesture might indicate that the man was a court singer (k'ayom), a title that is written in hieroglyphs on Maya vase paintings that depict attendants to royalty.
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Information

Object Number
2000-318
Medium
Ceramic with yellow and Maya blue pigment
Dates

A.D. 600–800

Dimensions
h. 26.7 cm., w. 15.5 cm., d. 7.5 cm. (10 1/2 x 6 1/8 x 2 15/16 in.)
Culture
Maya
Credit Line
Gift of Gillett G. Griffin in honor of Allen Rosenbaum; with additional support from Lewis Ranieri in honor of Gillett G. Griffin on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, by exchange; Harry A. Brooks, Class of 1935, in honor of Allen Rosenbaum; and Samuel Merrin and Spencer Throckmorton
Place Made

North America, Mexico, Campeche, Maya area, Jaina Island or vicinity

Type
figurines, ceramics
Subject
light grayish reddish brown, blue, nobility, attendants, singer, figures (representations), men, loincloth, cape (outerwear)
Materials
ceramic, pigment

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/853

Hasso Von Winning and Alfred Stendahl, <em>Pre-Columbian Art of Mexico and Central America</em>, (New York: Abrams, 1968),

2723 1968
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/8571316

Thomas Dickey, Vance Muse, and Henry Wiencek, <em>The God-Kings of Mexico </em>(Chicago: Stongehenge Press, 1982)., p. 40 (illus.)

2576 1982
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3774812

"Acquisitions of the Art Museum 2000," <em>Record of the Princeton University Art Museum</em> 60 (2001): p. 66-93., p. 78 (illus.), p. 82

941 2001
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/54799516

Mary E. Miller and Simon Martin, <em>Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya</em> (San Francisco: Fine Arts Museum of San Fransisco, 2004)., pl. 32 (and rollout), 76–77 (illus.)

2924 2004
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3774829

Allen Rosenbaum, "'Gillett and Me': How a Eurocentric Museum Director Learned to Love Pre-Columbian Art," <em>Record of the Princeton University Art Museum</em> 64 (2005): 8-19., fig. 1, p. 8; fig. 2, p. 9; fig. 3, p. 10

2745 2005
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/191864564

<em>Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection</em> (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), 172 (illus.)

474 2007
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/714731902

Richard Schlagman and Phaidon Press, <em>The Art Museum</em> (London; New York: Phaidon Press Inc., 2011)., fig. 10, p. 237 (illus.)

741 2011
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/865020505

<em>Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections </em>(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 222

1994 2013

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