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Feb 17, 2011

Ballgame Hip Protector (Yoke)

600–900

Mexico, Gulf Coast, Classic Veracruz style

(600-1100)

Greenstone, pigment

Overall: 41.5 x 37.5 x 11 cm (16 5/16 x 14 3/4 x 4 5/16 in.)

Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 1973.213

Location

233 Mesoamerican and Intermediate Region

Did you know?

The ballgame was a team sport played on specially constructed rectangular courts and involved striking a large solid rubber ball without using your hands.

Description

U-shaped ballgame sculptures imitate the shape of belt-like protectors, perhaps made of wood and padding, worn to shield ballplayers from injury when they returned the solid rubber ball from their hips. This fine example embodies a major theme of the ballgame: the connection between fertility and death. It is made of greenstone, a precious material that through its color symbolizes the lush burgeoning of nature after the rainy season. The imagery, however, is menacing: a monstrous head snarls from the curve, and human skulls appear on the sides.

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Provenance

Paul Tishman, New York, NY

?-1973

John Wise, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art

1973-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Spinden, Ellen S. "The Place of Tajin in Totonac Archaeology." American Anthropologist, New Series, 35, no. 2 (1933) pp. 224-270 www.jstor.org

Palacios, Enrique Juan. Arqueología de México: culturas arcaica y tolteca (Ilustraciones novedosas, en parte procedentes de piezas de la colección del autor). México: Imprenta Mundial, 1937. pp. 34-6, 72

Ekholm, Gordon. " Is American Indian Culture Asiatic?" Natural History (1950). pp. 344-351, 382

Proskouriakoff, Tatiana. " Classic Central Veracruz Sculpture." Contributions to American Archaeology and History. (Washington, D.C. 1954). pp. 11, 63-90

Covarrubias, Miguel. Indian Art of Mexico and Central America. New York: Knopf, 1957.

Willey, Gordon R. An Introduction to American Archaeology. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1966. p. 143

Easby, Elizabeth Kennedy, and John F. Scott. Before Cortés, Sculpture of Middle America; A Centennial Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from September 30, 1970 Through January 3, 1971. [New York]: Metropolitan Museum of Art; distributed by New York Graphic Society, 1970. no. 146

Hawley, Henry. "Classic Veracruz Sculptures." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 10 (1974). pp. 321-330, cover www.jstor.org

"The Year in Review for 1973." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 2 (1974). p. 72 www.jstor.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 394 archive.org

Kubler, George. Art and Architecture of Ancient America. Penguin, 1962. pl. 40b

Leyenaar, Ted J. J., and Lee Allen Parsons. Ulama: het balspel bij de Maya's en Azteken, 2000 v. Chr.--2000 n. Chr. : van mensenoffer tot sport = The ballgame of the Mayas and Aztecs, 2000 BC--AD 2000 : from human sacrifice to sport. Leiden, The Netherlands: Spruyt, Van Mantgem & De Does, 1988. p. 171, fig. 54

Cleveland Museum of Art. Masterpieces from East and West. New York, NY: Rizzoli International, 1992. p. 182

Deletaille, Emile, and Lin Deletaille. Trésors du nouveau monde. Bruxelles: Musées royaux d'art et d'histoire, 1992. fig. 98

Sabau García, María Luisa. México en el mundo de las colecciones de arte. México: D.R. Primera, 1994. pp. 183-241

García Díaz, Bernardo, Lourdes Alonso, and Adalberto Ríos Szalay. The State of Veracruz, Mexico. Mexican Art Abroad, México: Grupo Azabache, 1994.

May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. no. 107, pp. 96-97, 220

Bergh, Susan, "Art from the Sacred Ballgame", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 42 no. 03, March 2002 Mentioned & reproduced: p.8-9 archive.org

Exhibition history

Before Cortes, Sculpture of Middle America, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (September 30, 1970-January 3, 1971).

Tresors Du Nouveau Monde, Musees Royaux d' Art et d' Histoire, Brussells, Belgium (September 15- December 27, 1992).

Year in Review: 1973. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 30-March 17, 1974).

Ulama : het balspel bij de Maya's en Azteken, 2000 v. Chr.--2000 n. Chr.: van mensenoffer tot sport (The ballgame of the Mayas and Aztecs, 2000 BC--AD 2000: from human sacrifice to sport). Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden, Netherlands (organizer) (June 18-September 12, 1988).

Treasures of the New World. Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium (organizer) (September 15-December 25, 1992).

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{{cite web|title=Ballgame Hip Protector (Yoke)|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1973.213|year=600–900|access-date=21 September 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Ballgame Hip Protector (Yoke)

Ballgame Hip Protector (Yoke)

Mexico, Gulf Coast, Classic Veracruz style

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