Vessels: The Object as Container by Claudia Brittenham

Author:Claudia Brittenham [Brittenham, Claudia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: art, history, Ancient & Classical
ISBN: 9780198832577
Google: pDGoDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2019-09-05T00:28:39.631551+00:00

Figure 3.3. Tetrapod bowl showing a bird on the lid catching a fish; four peccary heads form the supports for the vessel. Clay, fourth century ce. 27.3 × 27.32 cm. Yale University Art Gallery 2001.82.1a-b. Gift of Peggy and Richard M. Danziger, LL.B. 1963.Photo © Yale University Art Gallery.

As these aquatic birds rise from the surface of their respective vessels, it seems that the body of the vessel is not only the body of the bird but also a body of water, another frequent theme on Maya vessels, perhaps an apt allusion to the soupy contents inside. A shallow tripod dish from the nearby city of Uaxactun makes precisely such a claim as an undulating band filled with small dots wraps around its outside, using the convention for representing water to play on the contents of the vessel (Figure 3.4).21 Fanciful aquatic creatures, including a shark and a waterlily serpent, intertwine with the aquatic band on the exterior, showing this watery realm as a place of vivid, thrashing movement.

Figure 3.4. Tripod bowl from Uaxactun Burial A20. The orange band in the center with the small dots inside is a familiar Maya convention for representing water. Clay, fifth century ce. 13 × 25 × 25 cm. Museo Nacional de Arqueologia y Etnología, Guatemala.

Photo © Jorge Pérez de Lara.

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