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Your galleryVessel with Dancing Maize Gods
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Find the band of glyphs around the rim, then follow one dancer’s towering back rack down to his feet.
Aj Maxam, a royal member of the Naranjo kingdom in Guatemala, made this vessel between 780 and 810. Three nearly identical panels show a Maya ruler dressed as the maize god, dancing under a huge rack of feathers and emblems. In the Popol Vuh, a 16th-century Maya epic, the maize god’s death and rebirth is likened to seed corn sprouting. The vase may have been a funeral offering for a noblewoman.
Earthenware and pigment · 23.9 × 25.7 × 25.9 cm · Art Institute of Chicago
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Vessel with Dancing Maize Gods
- Artist
- Aj Maxam (Maya) Vicinity of Naranjo, Petén region, Guatemala
- Date
- 780–810
- Medium
- Earthenware and pigment
- Dimensions
- 23.9 × 25.7 × 25.9 cm (9 7/16 × 10 1/8 × 10 1/4 in.)
- Credit line
- Ethel T. Scarborough Fund
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.