Creativity on the Maya Periphery: A Chamá-Style Vase at The Met

Fig. 1. Vessel, Throne Scene, late 7th–8th century. Guatemala, Mesoamerica. Maya. Ceramic; H. 8 1/2 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Charles and Valerie Diker, 1999 (1999.484.2)

«A colorful ancient Maya drinking cup in The Met collection (fig. 1) bears the finest example of a palace scene executed in the Chamá style, a painting tradition that originated in the highlands of the department of Alta Verapaz in modern-day Guatemala. Chamá-style vases—used in feasting, gift exchange, and funerary offerings—were a feature of courtly life on the western frontier of the Maya world in the eighth century. Only a few dozen vessels survive, and they represent a short-lived burst of artistic creativity at a time when major cities were in political turmoil and on the brink of abandonment.»

A few examples of Chamá-style pottery are known from archaeological excavations conducted in the early 20th century by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (fig. 4). Artists produced Chamá-style vases in a seemingly restricted area around the drainage of the Río Chixoy during only one to two generations. The rulers in this area on the Maya periphery commissioned vases with throne and procession scenes, battle scenes, and groupings of mythological characters such as anthropomorphic bats and rabbits.

Fig. 2. Two vases in the Chamá style. Left: Vase, 7th–9th century. Guatemala, Mesoamerica. Maya. Ceramic, pigment; H. 15 cm, D. 17.5 cm. The American Museum of Natural History (30.3/2487). Right: Cylindrical vase with seated figure wearing elaborate headdress, 7th–9th century. Guatemala, Mesoamerica. Maya. Ceramic, pigment; H. 5.5 in., D. 7.2 in. Hudson Museum (University of Maine at Orono), William P. Palmer III Collection (HM529)

The artist of The Met's vase depicted one of the few powerful political figures at a time when the Classic Maya political world had begun to unravel. Shaped using the hand-built coil technique, The Met's cylindrical vase contains a scene slip-painted on a yellow-orange background in red, brown, and white, and outlined in black. Red paint encircles both the rim and the base of the vessel, while a black-and-white chevron motif frames the main scene within the red bands. The chevron pattern is the key marker of Chamá style (fig. 2). The artist outlined the elements of the palace scene in a calligraphic line and masterfully shaded the humans and architectural elements.

Fig. 3. Two detail views of 1999.484.2

To the left of a vertical column is the main character of the scene, seated upon a large throne in front of an ornate bundle (fig. 3, left). The throne's trapezoidal legs contain hieroglyphs, though these, as with many Chamá-style vases, are actually pseudoglyphs. Pseudoglyphs are meant to give the appearance of writing without actually being legible. These text-like images were common after the eighth century, as literacy waned among speakers of the prestige Classic Mayan language.

The large bundle is known as a traveling bundle, composed of a pillow covered by a jaguar pelt and crowned with a headdress (fig. 3, right). A roaring jaguar forms the main part of the headdress resting on the pillow. It wears a head ornament of a water lily, a jade earring, a necklace of feathers, and representations of eyeballs—a sinister image associated with death gods. These types of portable thrones appear on other Chamá-style vases showing processions of rulers; rulers carried their royal court and kingly regalia with them as they visited their peers or subjects (fig. 4).

Left: Fig. 4. An attendant in a procession carries a portable throne covered in jaguar pelt in a tumpline. The Ratinlinxul Vase, 7th–9th century. Guatemala, Mesoamerica. Maya. Ceramic, pigment; H. 12.2 cm, D. 18.5 cm. The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Guatemalan Expedition, Robert Burkitt (NA11701)

Gracefully leaning forward to address two visitors, the protagonist king on The Met's vessel wears a large white cotton loincloth decorated with a band of black parallel lines; the excess fabric spills out behind him. He also dons a large pectoral, bracelets, anklets, and earflares, likely all made of jade, though any trace of fugitive green pigment is lost. The headdress of the king frames a topknot of hair and contains aquatic imagery of jawless reptiles and vegetation, part of which dangles in front of the face. Feathers extend behind him, and his neck, torso, and arms are marked with a deep red, perhaps a depiction of royal body painting. The distinguished profile of the face, accented with delicate depictions of long eyelashes, enhances his regal presence.

Under the throne lie the gifts presented to the king by his visitors as a form of tribute. A lipped plate, full of either fruit or corn tamales, sits directly under the king. On the ground in between the king and the first visitor sits a cylindrical vessel full of a foaming liquid, either a type of fermented corn beverage or perhaps even savory chocolate. The vessel depicted contains the same black-and-white chevron border as the vessel itself, which may be one of the very few self-referential depictions of a drinking cup in the corpus of Maya art.

Fig. 5. Alternate views of 1999.484.2

The two visitors to the king sit cross-legged on the ground with folded arms, leaning slightly forward in a deferential posture common in Maya art (fig. 5). The noble closest to the king wears a similar padded white loincloth and an elaborate headdress of a beaked water bird. The second tribute-bearer's beaded headdress contains floral imagery with a vegetal element dangling in front of his face. Both courtiers are marked with pseudoglyphs that hover above their heads. The artist captured their stoic gazes as they await instruction from the sovereign about to address them.

Resources
Coe, Michael D. The Maya Scribe and His World. New York: The Grolier Club, 1973.

Danien, Elin C. "The Chamá Polychrome Ceramic Cylinders in The University of Pennsylvania Museum." Unpublished diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1998.

Danien, Elin C. "Painted Metaphors: Pottery and Politics of the Ancient Maya." Expedition 51 (1) (2009): 41-56.

Danien, Elin C. "A Reinterpretation of the Chamá Vase." Accessed April 18, 2016. http://www.mayavase.com/com593.htm

Dieseldorff, E.P. "A Pottery Vase with Figure Painting from a Grave in Chamá." U.S. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 28 (1904): 639–44.

Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 1999–2000." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 58 (2) (Fall 2000): 72.

Reents-Budet, Dorie. Painting the Maya Universe: Royal Ceramics of the Classic Period. Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press, 1992.

Villacorta Calderó, José Antonio. Arqueología guatemalteca. Guatemala City: Tipografía Nacional, 1927.

Related Links
Now at The Met: "Decoding a Maya Rain God Sculpture from Chichen Itza" (March 31, 2016)

Now at The Met: "The Drinking Cup of a Classic Maya Noble" (September 25, 2014)