The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of January 22, 2021

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

Fun Fact

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.

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
García Díaz, Bernardo, Lourdes Alonso, and Adalberto Ríos Szalay. The State of Veracruz, Mexico. Mexican Art Abroad, México: Grupo Azabache, 1994.
Sabau García, María Luisa. México en el mundo de las colecciones de arte. México: D.R. Primera, 1994. pp. 183-241
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
Exhibition history

Before Cortes, Sculpture of Middle America, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (1970).

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 (organizer) (January 30-March 17, 1974).

Source URL: https://cmaweb23-bbn-2.clevelandart.org/art/1973.213