GARDE

GARDE

*Large ceremonial vase featuring three registers of horizontal and vertical glyphs. They are painted with the dynamic, figurative Hun Batz and Hun Chouen monkey gods, one arm symbolically raised to the sky and the other resting on a column, probably personifying a founding myth or temple altar. Hun Batz and Hun Chouen are mentioned in the Popol Vuh. They were very good at ball games, and considered good acrobats, dancers and musicians. They were transformed into monkeys and became the tutelary gods of craftsmen, musicians and dancers in the Mayan pantheon. This vase stands out for the beauty of its painting and the depiction of the twin brothers as monkey men, rarely seen on Mayan vases. Polychrome terracotta, some root marks, decoration slightly faded in places. Broken and glued in one place, marks of age, good overall condition. Maya, Mexico or Guatemala, Classical period 150 to 750 A.D. Height: 25.7 cm Diameter of opening: 10.8 cm Base diameter: 11 cm Provenance: Former Yvon Collet collection since 1967