Treasures of Sacred Maya Kings
A Special Exhibition Review by Stan Parchin
About the show:Treasures of Sacred Maya Kings has been afforded a royal presentation at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Regal red walls evoke majesty due a Maya ruler. And beige ones help to highlight the crisp design of the ancient works on display. The show was previously on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Dallas Museum of Art under the title Lords of Creation: The Origins of Sacred Maya Kingship. The Met's version of this landmark exhibition features some 150 Precolumbian objects (70 never before seen in the United States) and more than 10 additional works of art not described in the show's catalogue. Recent developments in the history of Maya art are covered in the New York presentation of this international loan exhibition of ancient Mesoamerican masterworks. The fascinating objects exhibited are mostly from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, with contributions from other countries' collections. They're divided into 12 sections that describe: Maya kings and their origins; their place in the Maya cosmos and religious responsibilities; royal portraiture; and death. Artworks on display were made principally from stone, ceramic, jade, bone and shell. They date primarily from 200 B.C. to 600 A.D.
The concept of divine kingship is an ancient one. It can easily be traced back to the civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, West Africa, Asia and Europe. Only recently have scholars begun to explore this phenomenon in Mesoamerica, fertile ground for such investigations.
Beginning in the last centuries of the First Millennium B.C., the Maya king or lord (ajaw) presided over an elaborate court that included his wife, children, administrative officials, scribes, astronomers, artists, architects and servants. The Maya concept of sacred kingship was sustained and reinforced by the continued bountiful production and harvest of maize (corn). They believed that this was largely determined by the ruler's deliberate ritualistic interaction with supernatural forces and ancestral deities. Little did they realize that their profound farming acumen and environmental factors played decisive roles in their agricultural success. At the same time, the abundance of maize allowed the ajaw to commission great architectural enterprises (pyramids) and sculptural campaigns, enhance his prestige, preserve his memory and maintain the order of the Maya cosmos. The Maya derived these notions from the Olmec, another (older) people who occupied Mexico's neighboring lowland regions.
The ajaw was regarded by the Maya as the divine spiritual intermediary between his city-state's inhabitants and otherworldly beings, including deified ancestors. As such, he was often portrayed in art wearing elaborate costumes during religious ceremonies dedicated to particular gods for specific causes. This is evident in the lone carved stela or commemorative stone slab that one encounters in the exhibition's first room. Kaminaljuyu Stela 11 (200-50 B.C.) depicts one of the first Maya rulers as divine. In this well-preserved sculpture, the ajaw stands in distinct profile between the Principal Bird Deity, with a large hooked beak above him, and the open mouth of an earthly creature beneath his feet. Spiked incense burners appear on both sides of him. This relief sculpture of the ruler, who wears an avian mask, also with a curved beak, identifies him with the feathered god and illustrates his role as the spiritual bridge between the heavens and the earth. Above the ajaw's mask is a creature that bears a three-leaf or trefoil maize plant, thereby linking the ruler symbolically to the staple crop of the Maya. Scholars have concluded that once the ajaw was transformed during particular religious rituals while donning his regalia, he came to represent an aspect of the sun, perhaps its early light.
Kaminaljuyu Stela 11
Guatemala, Maya, 200-50 B.C.
Southern Highlands, site of Kaminaljuyu
Granite
H. 76 in., W. 26 3/4 in., D. 7 1/8 in.
© Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología,
Guatemala City (MNAE 3039)
Wooden sculptures from Precolumbian cultures rarely survive the tropical heat and moisture of the Central American climate. So the state of preservation of a mysterious Kneeling Figure (500-600 A.D.) from Mexico or Guatemala is indeed remarkable. This could have been a result of its presumed existence for centuries in an arid stone shelter. The sculpture's elaborate garb suggests an elevated level of social status, perhaps noble or religious. The figure's kilt with decorative fringes is supported by a fancifully patterned and knotted belt. Around the figure's neck hangs a crafted mask. Aside from the statue's curled mustache, this Maya masterpiece is also unusual in terms of its prayerful pose and intense gaze. Its stance suggests a state of trance attained by an ajaw or a diviner. It has also been conjectured that the figure once held a square mirror. The Maya believed that mirrors were tools of divination that created portals to the otherworld. If indeed this sculpture supported one, such a conclusion would lend credence to the statue's interpretation as a representation of a Maya with special religious knowledge or supernatural abilities.
Kneeling Figure
Mexico or Guatemala, Maya, 500-600 A.D.
Reported from Tabasco-Peten border area
Wood
H. 14 3/4 in.
The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection,
Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979 (1979.206.1063)
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art
An incomplete yet equally enigmatic sculpture whose attire suggests royal status is a limestone Divination Figure (150-350 A.D.) promised to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The male figure wears a Principal Bird Deity belt head on his back. In Maya art and religion, the jaguar was another powerful symbol associated with royalty. The statue's feline ears indicate the person's earthly transformation into the jaguar way or animal spirit companion. He lurches forward with eyes wide open, staring outwardly as if in a trance. What remains of a square frame (with an indecipherable inscription at the sculpture's base) could have held a mirror like the sculpture described above.
Divination Figure
Mexico or Guatemala, Maya, 150-350 A.D.
Provenance unknown
Limestone
H. 10 3/8 in., W. 9 3/8 in.
Promised Gift
© Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
In addition to the ajaw's crucial religious role, he also played an indispensable part in the maintenance of the Maya cosmic order. The Maya universe was separated into three vertical realms: the celestial upper world dominated by supernatural entities and deified ancestors; the earthly middle plain of human existence; and the watery underworld reached through caves and still bodies of water. A tree-shaped central axis that sometimes resembled maize connected all three dimensions. Surrounded by a primordial ocean, the earthly world's four horizontal sides were oriented to the cardinal points of a compass. The axis represented the fifth cardinal direction. It was the divine lord's duty to ensure the cosmos' harmony and continued existence by reenacting sacred rites associated with the creation myth. Frequently he employed ceremonial objects to commemorate these rituals. The Guatemalan Cache Urn with Deity Head (250-450 A.D.) is one example of a pair of such objects. The lidded ceramic container and its companion piece feature external ornamentation similar to Maya architectural motifs. Perhaps they were used in the dedication ceremonies of buildings commissioned by the ajaw. The deity's openmouthed face on the jar's exterior has eyes with fiercely spiraling, penetrating pupils. An ornately designed mythological bird is perched on the god's head.
Cache Urn with Deity Head
Guatemala, Maya, 250-450 A.D.
Central Lowlands (?)
Ceramic
H. 18 3/4 in.
© Fundación Televisa A.C., Mexico City (R21 P.J. 180)
The Maya were also capable of sensitive animal sculpture. In The Met's exhibition is an exquisite ceramic Vessel in Form of a Deer (ca. 430-435 A.D.). The creature gently reclines on its right side. It grins with menacing razor-sharp teeth exposed. The aperture in the sculpture's left side may have been created to receive pinole, a mixture of cacao and ground maize intended for a religious ritual.
Vessel in Form of a Deer
Honduras, Maya, 430-435 A.D.
Site of Copan, Structure 10L-16, the Hunal Tomb
Ceramic
W. 15 3/4 in.
© INAH, Centro Regional de Investigaciones
Arqueológicas, Copan, Honduras (CPN-C-1761)
The glorious past of the Maya comes alive in Treasures of Sacred Maya Kings. Rarely seen artworks, many recently discovered, expand our knowledge of Maya art, culture and sacred kingship as exhibited in The Metropolitan Museum's remarkable presentation.
About the catalogue:
Fields, Virginia M. and Dorie Reents-Budet (eds.).
Lords of Creation: Origins of Sacred Maya Kingship (exh. cat.).
London and Los Angeles: Scala Publishers, 2005.
The exhibition catalogue is an indispensable guide to the study of divine kingship in Maya art, an ever-evolving subject.
For further reading:
Miller, Mary, et al. Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya (exh. cat.).
New York: Thames & Hudson, 2004.
Schele, Linda and Mary Ellen Miller. The Blood of Kings:
Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art (exh. cat.).
Fort Worth, Texas: Kimbell Art Museum, 1983.
A seminal work in the study of kingship and religion in ancient Maya art.
"Treasures of Sacred Maya Kings" is on view from June 13 through September 10, 2006 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue at 82 Street, New York, NY 10028-0198 (Telephone: 212-535-7710; Website). The museum is open Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday from 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM and Friday and Saturday from 9:30 AM to 9:00 PM. SUGGESTED admission is $15.00 for adults. Paid parking is available in The Museum Garage.
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From your Guide: Stan Parchin, Senior Correspondent for Museums and Special Exhibitions, is a specialist in ancient, late-medieval and Renaissance art and history, and a regular contributor to About Art History. You may read all of his Special Exhibition and Catalogue Reviews here.
