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, Pre-Columbian Art of Mexico and Central America, (New York: Abrams, 1968),

2723 1968

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

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

2576 1982

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

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

941 2001

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

Mary E. Miller and Simon Martin, Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya (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," Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 64 (2005): 8-19., fig. 1, p. 8; fig. 2, p. 9; fig. 3, p. 10

2745 2005

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

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

474 2007

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

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

741 2011

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

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

1994 2013