Maya Tripod Plate

Walter Randel, New York

Alan E. and Marianne Schwartz, Michigan, acquired from the above on February 8, 1966

Thence by descent to the present owner

Meadow Brook Art Gallery, Oakland University, Rochester, Art of Pre-Columbian America, February 15 - March 26, 1976

Cecilia F. Klein, Art of Pre-Columbian America, Meadow Brook Art Gallery, 1976, p. 28, cat. no. 34, pl. 15

Bold, colorful and graphic, the tripod plate's central figure is surrounded by avian elements. Wearing a stiff feather backrack, he gestures toward the arching band of feathers before him. The plate's inner rim is encircled by a row of twelve seated long-beaked birds, and the perimeter edge is trimmed with black motifs associated with the feathers of the mythical Muan bird.

This plate is a variation of the Campeche style, best known as the "Turkey Vulture" plates that depict bold images of the Muan bird in profile who is considered an avian messenger of the lords of the underworld.

Cf. For an example of a Campeche style plate, see Dorie Reents-Budet, Painting the Maya Universe: Royal Ceramics of the Classic Period, Duke University Press, 1994, p. 187, and p. 188, cat. no. 5.28.