Maya Seated Figure of a Dwarf

Stendahl Galleries, Los Angeles, acquired by 1959

Jay C. Leff, Uniontown, Pennsylvania, acquired by 1966, presumably from the above

Merrin Gallery, New York

Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck, New York 

Sotheby's, New York, November 21, 1988, lot 89, consigned by the above

Merrin Gallery, New York

Paul A. Cohen, Belmont, Massachusetts, acquired from the above on February 7, 1995

Thence by descent to the present owners

Kunsthaus Zürich, Kunst der Mexikaner, January 24 - March 15, 1959

The Brooklyn Museum, New York, Ancient Art from Latin America from the Collection of Jay C. Leff, November 22, 1966 - March 5, 1967

The Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania, Pre-Columbian Art of Mesoamerica from the Collection of Jay C. Leff, February 13 - April 2, 1972

Kunsthaus Zürich, ed., Kunst der Mexikaner, Zürich, 1959, p. 65 (illustrated)

Irmgard Groth Kimball, Mayan Terracottas, London, 1960, p. 31 (illustrated)

Elizabeth K. Easby, Ancient Art from Latin America from the Collection of Jay C. Leff, Brooklyn, 1966, p. 108, cat. no. 484 (listed)

Ferdinand Anton, Kunst der Maya, Leipzig, 1968, n.p., pl. 215 (illustrated), and p. 326, cat. no. 215 (listed)

Ferdinand Anton, Art of the Maya, London, 1970, n.p., pl. 215 (illustrated), and p. 326, cat. no. 215 (listed)

Michael Kan, Pre-Columbian Art of Mesoamerica from the Collection of Jay C. Leff, Allentown, Pennsylvania, 1972, n.p., pl. 119 (illustrated)

Formed as a figural whistle, the solemn and stern dwarf wears an elaborate, spangled turban of a type associated with scribes, conveying his courtly status. The ballooning headdress is applied with three large discs, probably of jade, the whole secured with two bands of segmented textile. Patches of his finely striated coiffure appear on his forehead, the nose is scarified with beadwork, and large jade beads adorn his chest. The corpulent body and legs are compact and add a grounded element to his overall demeanor.

“Maya lords sought the company and advice of dwarves and hunchbacks, who were thought to be both entertaining and wise. [... The] court scenes on Maya vases indicate that they were at least time to time the king’s closest companion and most trusted counselors, a concept probably based in religious beliefs, where they are the malformed companions of the Maize God.”¹

A very similar figure is in the collection of the Princeton University Art Museum (inv. no. y1968-134).

¹ Mary Miller and Simon Martin, Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya, San Francisco, 2004, p. 40, pl. 11