Maya Stucco Figure of a Riding Peccary
Modeled lime stucco
Guatemala, El Peten
Classic Maya 250 - 900 AD
Height 5 1/8"
Provenance: Wally and Brenda Zollman, Indianapolis, IN
Publication: The Face of Ancient America - The Wally and Brenda Zollman collection of Precolumbian Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1989, David Joralemon and others, page 122 #83
Exhibition: Indianapolis Museum of Art, December 3 1988 - February 26, 1989
The Indiana Museum of Art, Bloomington June 13 - September 10, 1989
Modeled from fine white stucco, this unique and enigmatic artifact depicts a man with a bird headdress riding on the back of some creature. The object is designed to sit on a U-shaped base as pictured here; thus the figure stares ahead intently as he hangs tightly to the "handles" of his "bucking bronco."
Various suggestions have been offered as identifications of the almost formless creature, ranging from dogs to dolphins. For two reasons I propose that it is a highly simplified representation of a peccary. First, it would seem to be a four footed with two stubby leg groups protruding to the right. It has a small punctuate eye and blunt-ended snout that might suggest the profile of a peccary. Second there are images of a man riding a peccary in Mayan iconography. Schele and Miller (1986 : fig 48) published a drawing of an image from an unpublished codex-style vessel (Kerr no. 1991) in the Land collection (Nicholson and Cordy-Collins 1979) of the Maya God D, Itzamna riding a peccary in an identical bare- back posture. Both the name of God D and the word for peccary, chitam appears in texts on the vase (Justin Kerr, personal communication to the author, 1988.)The best example I know of is on the lid finial of an Early Classic Tzakol Phase vessel in the Dallas Museum of Arts collection. Hellmuth (1987: figs 235, 458, 510) has published a photograph and drawing of the finial and correctly identifies the rider as the Maya God D - the mount in this example is also explicitly a peccary. There must once have been a legend of a minor god such as God D who rode on the back of a peccary, but further understanding must await additional archaeological or ethnographic discoveries.
David Joralemon 1988
Appraised by New World Art Services March 4, 1997 for $8500
Modeled lime stucco
Guatemala, El Peten
Classic Maya 250 - 900 AD
Height 5 1/8"
Provenance: Wally and Brenda Zollman, Indianapolis, IN
Publication: The Face of Ancient America - The Wally and Brenda Zollman collection of Precolumbian Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1989, David Joralemon and others, page 122 #83
Exhibition: Indianapolis Museum of Art, December 3 1988 - February 26, 1989
The Indiana Museum of Art, Bloomington June 13 - September 10, 1989
Modeled from fine white stucco, this unique and enigmatic artifact depicts a man with a bird headdress riding on the back of some creature. The object is designed to sit on a U-shaped base as pictured here; thus the figure stares ahead intently as he hangs tightly to the "handles" of his "bucking bronco."
Various suggestions have been offered as identifications of the almost formless creature, ranging from dogs to dolphins. For two reasons I propose that it is a highly simplified representation of a peccary. First, it would seem to be a four footed with two stubby leg groups protruding to the right. It has a small punctuate eye and blunt-ended snout that might suggest the profile of a peccary. Second there are images of a man riding a peccary in Mayan iconography. Schele and Miller (1986 : fig 48) published a drawing of an image from an unpublished codex-style vessel (Kerr no. 1991) in the Land collection (Nicholson and Cordy-Collins 1979) of the Maya God D, Itzamna riding a peccary in an identical bare- back posture. Both the name of God D and the word for peccary, chitam appears in texts on the vase (Justin Kerr, personal communication to the author, 1988.)The best example I know of is on the lid finial of an Early Classic Tzakol Phase vessel in the Dallas Museum of Arts collection. Hellmuth (1987: figs 235, 458, 510) has published a photograph and drawing of the finial and correctly identifies the rider as the Maya God D - the mount in this example is also explicitly a peccary. There must once have been a legend of a minor god such as God D who rode on the back of a peccary, but further understanding must await additional archaeological or ethnographic discoveries.
David Joralemon 1988
Appraised by New World Art Services March 4, 1997 for $8500
Modeled lime stucco
Guatemala, El Peten
Classic Maya 250 - 900 AD
Height 5 1/8"
Provenance: Wally and Brenda Zollman, Indianapolis, IN
Publication: The Face of Ancient America - The Wally and Brenda Zollman collection of Precolumbian Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1989, David Joralemon and others, page 122 #83
Exhibition: Indianapolis Museum of Art, December 3 1988 - February 26, 1989
The Indiana Museum of Art, Bloomington June 13 - September 10, 1989
Modeled from fine white stucco, this unique and enigmatic artifact depicts a man with a bird headdress riding on the back of some creature. The object is designed to sit on a U-shaped base as pictured here; thus the figure stares ahead intently as he hangs tightly to the "handles" of his "bucking bronco."
Various suggestions have been offered as identifications of the almost formless creature, ranging from dogs to dolphins. For two reasons I propose that it is a highly simplified representation of a peccary. First, it would seem to be a four footed with two stubby leg groups protruding to the right. It has a small punctuate eye and blunt-ended snout that might suggest the profile of a peccary. Second there are images of a man riding a peccary in Mayan iconography. Schele and Miller (1986 : fig 48) published a drawing of an image from an unpublished codex-style vessel (Kerr no. 1991) in the Land collection (Nicholson and Cordy-Collins 1979) of the Maya God D, Itzamna riding a peccary in an identical bare- back posture. Both the name of God D and the word for peccary, chitam appears in texts on the vase (Justin Kerr, personal communication to the author, 1988.)The best example I know of is on the lid finial of an Early Classic Tzakol Phase vessel in the Dallas Museum of Arts collection. Hellmuth (1987: figs 235, 458, 510) has published a photograph and drawing of the finial and correctly identifies the rider as the Maya God D - the mount in this example is also explicitly a peccary. There must once have been a legend of a minor god such as God D who rode on the back of a peccary, but further understanding must await additional archaeological or ethnographic discoveries.
David Joralemon 1988
Appraised by New World Art Services March 4, 1997 for $8500