File:Mayan - Stucco Portrait Head - Walters 20092046.jpg

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Stucco Portrait Head   (Wikidata search (Cirrus search) Wikidata query (SPARQL)  Create new Wikidata item based on this file)
Artist
Anonymous (Mayan)Unknown author
Title
Stucco Portrait Head
Description
English: A fundamental feature of Mesoamerican formal architecture was the use of molded, modeled, and carved stucco decoration. Painted either monochrome red or in a variety of colors, these façades narrated key precepts of religio-political ideology, displaying the supernatural patrons and worldly authority of the aristocracy that used the structures. The façade decoration also could reveal a building's function as well as its symbolic identity. This stucco head, which was part of a larger pictorial façade narrative, illustrates the close connection between the gods and Maya aristocracy.

This head wears the Maize god headband, although here the tubular beads are indicated by paint. The lack of tau-shaped tooth and more personalized facial features suggest the rendering of a member of the Classic Period elite.

The Maya would often intentionally destroy a building's decorative façade and then collapse the vaulted chambers prior to constructing a new building atop the rubble. Frequently, the rubble contained fragments of the old stucco narrative now buried below the new platform. Most often it is the heads that survive in the debitage which suggests that the Maya paid particular attention to the faces of deities and royalty when they destroyed stucco façades during renovation projects. In addition, stucco façade heads have been found as offerings in tombs or other ritual caches placed inside buildings. Such special treatment indicates the prestige and likely perceived spiritual power of these stucco portraits among the Classic Period Maya.
Date AD 550-850 (Late Classic)
Medium stucco, paint
Dimensions height: 28.7 cm (11.2 in); width: 24.4 cm (9.6 in); depth: 18.8 cm (7.4 in)
dimensions QS:P2048,28.7U174728
dimensions QS:P2049,24.4U174728
dimensions QS:P5524,18.8U174728
institution QS:P195,Q210081
Accession number
2009.20.46
Place of creation Guatemala (?)
Object history
  • Ron Messick Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico [date and mode of acquisition unknown]
  • John G. Bourne, 1990s, by purchase
  • 2009: given to Walters Art Museum
Credit line Gift of John Bourne, 2009
Source Walters Art Museum: Home page  Info about artwork
Permission
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Attribution: Walters Art Museum
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Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current14:43, 25 March 2012Thumbnail for version as of 14:43, 25 March 20121,418 × 1,800 (1.42 MB)File Upload Bot (Kaldari) (talk | contribs)== {{int:filedesc}} == {{Walters Art Museum artwork |artist = Mayan |title = ''Stucco Portrait Head'' |description = {{en|A fundamental feature of Mesoamerican formal architecture was the use of molded, modeled, and carved st...