Princeton Vase
| The Princeton Vase | |
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| Artist | Late Classic, Maya ('Codex' style) |
| Year | A.D. 670–750 |
| Medium | Ceramic with orange and brown-black slip, with traces of post-fire Maya blue pigment |
| Subject | God L in his throne room and an execution scene |
| Dimensions | 21.5 cm (8.5 in); 16.6 cm diameter (6.5 in) |
| Location | Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ |
| Accession | y1975-17 |
| Website | artmuseum |
The Princeton Vase is a famous example of Late Classic Maya ceramics in codex style, first published in M.D. Coe's 'The Maya Scribe and His World' (1973), and now a key piece of the Pre-Columbian collection of the Princeton University Art Museum. Originally serving as a drinking vessel for chocolate, it depicts a throne room with the aged god L surrounded by five female figures. In front of the throne a bound captive is being decapitated by two masked men, a scene that has long been assumed to refer to an episode in the Popol Vuh. As to the object's art-historical importance, it bears comparison to the equally famous Jaguar Baby vase in the New York Metropolitan Museum.
The vase dates to the Late Classic period of Maya civilization (late 7th or early 8th century), and originated in the Nakbé region, Mirador Basin, Petén, Guatemala. Towards the rim of the vase, within the painted scene, formulaic texts consecrate the vessel, specifying its purpose as a drinking vessel for chocolate, and designating its owner, a lord named Muwaan K'uk'. The vase would have been used in courtly feasts similar to the one depicted. The main surface of the vessel shows a calligraphic painting, executed with graceful, sure lines on a cream slip, of a theatrically composed mythological scene. Subtle visual devices, including one woman tapping the foot of another while her face points to the left, direct the viewer to turn the drinking vessel, allowing for a temporal unfolding as part of the viewing experience.
The scene's chief figure is the deity known from the Dresden Codex as god L, a deity of merchants, warfare, and tobacco. The old, toothless man sits on a throne within a conventional depiction of a palace, with a pier behind him and what is likely a cornice above. The cornice is decorated with two jawless jaguars flanking the forward-facing face of a shark. Curtains have been furled to reveal the seated lord. God L can be identified by his characteristic open-weave brocaded shawl as well as the broad-brimmed hat decorated with owl feathers and a stuffed owl with outstretched wings.
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