Frank Sherman Benson Fund and the Henry L. Batterman Fund

Carll H. de Silver Fund

Carll H. de Silver Fund

Carll H. de Silver Fund

By exchange

Gift of Albert Gallatin

Solid and hollow Maya ceramic figurines like these representing men wearing elaborate animal headdresses and masks are common funerary items, found primarily on Jaina Island in Mexico. High social status is indicated by the elaborate regalia and ornaments. The nobleman in the center wears a removable serpent-head headdress decorated with precious quetzal feathers, possibly associating him with the Feathered Serpent deity Kukulcán. The whistle on the left depicts a man wearing a jaguar mask and sacrificial scarf emblematic of the God of the Underworld. The rattle on the right represents a man wearing a bird mask and holding two rattles. His large, feathered back ornament is an attribute of the turkey or vulture. Turkeys (associated with fertility) and vultures (associated with sacrifice) were used as ceremonial offerings.


Figurillas maya sólidas y huecas como éstas, representando hombres que visten elaborados tocados animales y máscaras, son objetos funerarios comunes, encontrados principalmente en la Isla Jaina en México. La alta posición social se indica por los ropajes elaborados y la ornamentación. El hombre al centro lleva un tocado removible de cabeza de serpiente decorado con preciosas plumas de quetzal, asociándolo posiblemente a la deidad Kukulcán, la Serpiente Emplumada. El silbato a la izquierda muestra un hombre llevando una máscara de jaguar y un pañuelo ceremonial emblemático del Dios del Inframundo. La maraca a la derecha representa a un hombre llevando una máscara de pájaro, y sosteniendo dos maracas. El gran ornamento de plumas que lleva a su espalda es un atributo del pavo o zopilote. Pavos (asociados con fertilidad) y zopilotes (asociados con sacrificio) eran utilizados como ofrendas ceremoniales.

The delicately modeled ceramic figurine is Jaina in style and reveals the upper part of a figure emerging from a water lily. The figure is red with ornaments (necklace, earrings, and headdress) in cream color. The tip of the headdress is blue. There are other trace amounts of blue on the stem and petals of the flower. The figure's arms are folded across the waist. The flower has three pointed petals: one is in the front-center section, turned downward, exposing the inside texture of the lily that is handled with an application of clay dots; a second stands upward in the back, enveloping the figure; and a third stands upward on the proper left side of the lily. Because the water lily is associated with the Underworld in Maya cosmology, this figurine may symbolize the renewal of life after death. Condition; good; there are two repaired breaks in the stem and two repaired breaks in the headdress. There are also two broken edges at the proper right side of the blue central portion of the headdress, probably where two appliquéd segments had been attached.

Dick S. Ramsay Fund

A. Augustus Healy Fund