Maya Jade Pectoral with Central Deity Head

David Bramhall, New York

Peter G. Wray, Scottsdale, acquired from the above between the late 1970s and 1984

David Bramhall, New York, reacquired from the above

Dr. Wally and Brenda Zollman, Indianapolis, acquired from the above

Private Collection, New York

Sotheby's, New York, May 18, 2000, lot 147, consigned by the above

Assen and Christine Nicolov, Seattle, acquired at the above auction

Thence by descent to the present owner

Harmer Rooke Galleries, New York, Fine Pre-Columbian Art from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Peter G. Wray, October 9, 1984 - January 5, 1985 

The Denver Art Museum, 1987

National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C., 1987 - 1988 

The Indianapolis Museum of Art, The Wally and Brenda Zollman Collection of Pre-Columbian Art, December 3, 1988 - February 26, 1989; additional venue:

Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, June 13 - September 10, 1989

Fine Pre-Columbian Art from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Peter G. Wray, Harmer Rooke Galleries, New York, 1984, fig. 218 

Lee Parsons, John B. Carlson, and Peter David Joralemon, The Wally and Brenda Zollman Collection of Pre-Columbian Art, Indianapolis, 1988, p. 64, no. 36

Brilliant apple-green jade was the ultimate color and material used by the Maya for ornaments of the elite and royal class. No other natural substance reinforced their connection to fertility, water, and the sacred power that defined their legitimacy more than jade.

Known as chalchihuitl, jade was classified by color, purity, and luster, with the variations given different names, according to the colonial chronicles.

Laura Filloy Nadal discussed the historical sources referring to jade and hard greenstone, noting “[...] all types of chalchihuitl were thought to emit a fresh, moist vapor that caused the plants above them to grow greener than the rest of the surrounding vegetation.”¹ The essence of jade was a fresh, life-giving breath.

This large pendant is carved with the central face of the Sun deity with severe features, including large, recessed eyes and prominent cheeks. The guilloche mat symbols, a recognized symbol of rulership, flank the face, with feathers at each end. Above the heavy brow are the knotted bands of a headdress. The pendant is pierced in several places for attachment and suspension, including a long axial groove on the reverse, and double perforations at each short end. 

Cf. For examples of jade sun god deity heads, see Tatiana Proskouriakoff, Jades from the Cenote of Sacrifice, Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1974, p. 139, pl. 59.

¹ “Forests of Jade, Luxury Arts and Symbols of Excellence in Ancient Mesoamerica”, in Joanne Pillsbury, Timothy Potts, Kim N. Richter, eds., Golden Kingdoms: Luxury Arts in the Ancient Americas, Los Angeles, 2017, p. 67.