STATUE D'UN DIGNITAIRE ASSISCULTURE MAYA, JAINACLASSIQUE RÉCENT, 550-950 AP. J.-C. |

Stendahl Galleries, Los Angeles
Collection Saul et Marsha Stanoff, acquis ca. 1968
Sotheby's, New York, The Saul and Marsha Stanoff Collection, 17 mai 2007, n° 66
Importante Collection privée française

Good condition overall. Head broken and glued as proper right side of the figure. Little losses of material under the base. Good preservation of the orange, white and blue pigments.
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Ce portrait d’un vénérable homme d’État est l’une des représentations les plus élégantes du figuralisme de Jaina. Il traduit remarquablement l’austérité d’un haut dignitaire. Le seigneur arbore une tête de cerf maintenue par un épais bandeau frontal, de grandes boucles d’oreilles et un large brassard. Sa cape touffue est ornée de cosses, peut-être de l’arbre ceiba, censé être l’axis mundi cosmique. Les imposantes capes en plumes, également portées sur les épaules et ouvertes sur l'avant, étaient considérées comme des insignes de rang portés par les notables lors des cérémonies de bénédiction. Ces capes sont visibles sur deux figurines Jaina  (Dumbarton Oaks Collection, Washington, D.C., inv. n° PC.B.200; Museo Nacional de Antropologia, Mexico City, inv. n° MNA-5-1045) et sur un vase en céramique dont le décor peint illustre une scène de bénédiction.  Un seigneur exhibant sur son pectoral un emblème Ica y asperge de gouttes sacrées un personnage en cape (cf. O'Neil in Pillsbury, Ancient Maya Art at Dumbarton Oaks, 2012, p. 412-414).

Ici, le personnage porte également l’emblème Ica du vent sur son pectoral de jade ou de coquillage, faisant écho au style aérien de cette statue Jaina.  

This regal portrait of a statesman conveys the austerity of a mature person of rank. It is one of the most elegant depictions of the Jaina figural style. The lord wears a deer's head as headdress secured with a thick headband, large earrings, and wide cuff. His tufted cape is adorned with the pods, perhaps of the ceiba tree, believed to be the cosmic axis mundi. 

Capes with large tufted feathers,  similarly worn draped over the shoulders and open in the front, are considered specific clothing marking the nobleman as a participant in a blessing ceremony. These capes are shown on two Jaina figures (Dumbarton Oaks Collection, Washington, D.C., no. PC.B.200; Museo Nacional de Antropologia, Mexico City, no. MNA-5-1045).  It is also shown on a painted ceramic vessel illustrating a blessing with the caped figure receiving sprinkles of liquid from a bundle of feathers held by a lord wearing the pectoral with an Ik emblem (see O'Neil in Pillsbury, ed., Ancient Maya Art at Dumbarton Oaks, 2012, pp. 412-414).

The subject figure also wears the large circular ornament of shell or jade, which is incised with the Ik emblem, meaning wind; appropriately referencing the whistle component of this Jaina figure.