Maya Polychrome Bowl with Saurian Deity and Stepped Pyramid FriezePre-Columbian,...
Maya Polychrome Bowl with Saurian Deity and Stepped Pyramid FriezePre-Columbian, Guatemala or Mexico, Maya, ca. 500–800 CE. A ceramic bowl raised on a low ring base, its flaring wall broken by a projecting rim skirt and slipped in warm orange. The exterior carries a procession of seven stepped-pyramid motifs in alternating red, brown, and cream, framed above and below by bands of dark triangles. Within, a saurian deity crouches in profile, head thrust forward on a long toothy snout, a spiked crest running the length of his back, a lobed floral rosette before his belly and a coiled snail-like element behind. Painted with a fine black outlining brush over burnished slip, the bowl belongs to the serving and presentation wares of Late Classic elite households, vessels that carried food at feasts and frequently followed their owners into the tomb. Size: 10.25" Diam x 3.75" H (26.0 cm Diam x 9.5 cm H).
Reptilian and crocodilian beings pervade Maya cosmology. The earth itself was imagined as the back of a great saurian floating on the primordial sea, its spined ridge the mountainous surface of the world, and the water lily blossom, rendered here as the lobed rosette, is the standard marker of that watery underworld surface. The pairing of a spined saurian with a lily flower and a shell is therefore not a random menagerie but a compressed statement of the aquatic earth-plane.
The stepped-fret motif banding the exterior is among the most durable elements of the Mesoamerican decorative vocabulary, read variously as pyramid platforms, cloud terraces, or the stylized coils of a serpent, and it recurs from Maya ceramics to the mosaic facades of Mitla.
Provenance: Private collection of a Chicago physician. Ex. Arte Primitivo, auction 11, June 15, 2000, lot 246. Ex. collection of Mr. and Mrs. Saul Edelbaum, NYC.
SHIPPING: We coordinate worldwide shipping in-house through specialist international forwarders experienced with fine art and antiquities customs manifests. International buyers must confirm, prior to bidding, that their country's customs authority will accept the item. All duties, taxes, clearance fees, and any costs arising from customs delays, seizures, re-export, returns, or loss in transit are the buyer's sole responsibility. Artemis assumes no liability for items refused entry, detained, or lost after export. We cannot ship ancient items to their country of origin (Egyptian to Egypt, Greek to Greece, etc.).
PAYMENT EXCEPTION: For clients not previously established with Artemis, payment for all gold, precious metal, and gemstone lots must be made by bank wire transfer or certified bank check/money order, without exception.
Item #73085Four very minor small rim chips, otherwise intact, Excellent condition.
Maya Polychrome Bowl with Saurian Deity and Stepped Pyramid FriezePre-Columbian, Guatemala or Mexico, Maya, ca. 500–800 CE. A ceramic bowl raised on a low ring base, its flaring wall broken by a projecting rim skirt and slipped in warm orange. The exterior carries a procession of seven stepped-pyramid motifs in alternating red, brown, and cream, framed above and below by bands of dark triangles. Within, a saurian deity crouches in profile, head thrust forward on a long toothy snout, a spiked crest running the length of his back, a lobed floral rosette before his belly and a coiled snail-like element behind. Painted with a fine black outlining brush over burnished slip, the bowl belongs to the serving and presentation wares of Late Classic elite households, vessels that carried food at feasts and frequently followed their owners into the tomb. Size: 10.25" Diam x 3.75" H (26.0 cm Diam x 9.5 cm H).
Reptilian and crocodilian beings pervade Maya cosmology. The earth itself was imagined as the back of a great saurian floating on the primordial sea, its spined ridge the mountainous surface of the world, and the water lily blossom, rendered here as the lobed rosette, is the standard marker of that watery underworld surface. The pairing of a spined saurian with a lily flower and a shell is therefore not a random menagerie but a compressed statement of the aquatic earth-plane.
The stepped-fret motif banding the exterior is among the most durable elements of the Mesoamerican decorative vocabulary, read variously as pyramid platforms, cloud terraces, or the stylized coils of a serpent, and it recurs from Maya ceramics to the mosaic facades of Mitla.
Provenance: Private collection of a Chicago physician. Ex. Arte Primitivo, auction 11, June 15, 2000, lot 246. Ex. collection of Mr. and Mrs. Saul Edelbaum, NYC.
SHIPPING: We coordinate worldwide shipping in-house through specialist international forwarders experienced with fine art and antiquities customs manifests. International buyers must confirm, prior to bidding, that their country's customs authority will accept the item. All duties, taxes, clearance fees, and any costs arising from customs delays, seizures, re-export, returns, or loss in transit are the buyer's sole responsibility. Artemis assumes no liability for items refused entry, detained, or lost after export. We cannot ship ancient items to their country of origin (Egyptian to Egypt, Greek to Greece, etc.).
PAYMENT EXCEPTION: For clients not previously established with Artemis, payment for all gold, precious metal, and gemstone lots must be made by bank wire transfer or certified bank check/money order, without exception.
Item #73085Four very minor small rim chips, otherwise intact, Excellent condition.
