The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of February 1, 2023

Ballgame Palma

c. 900–1100

Mexico, Gulf Coast, Classic Veracruz style

(600-1100)

Stone

Overall: 49.2 x 23.5 x 11.4 cm (19 3/8 x 9 1/4 x 4 1/2 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1973.3

Location

233 Mesoamerican and Intermediate Region

Fun Fact

The Mesoamerican ballgame was played with a hard rubber ball that players bounced off their hips.

Description

Stone palmas—so-called today for their palm frond-like shape—are ceremonial sculptures that may replicate lightweight gear worn over the chest during the ballgame. The scene on the back of this palma vividly illustrates the tie between the ballgame and sacrifice. A bat descends from the top, clutching severed human body parts, and at the center an upright figure brandishes a blade over a reclining victim. The scene's many animal figures, including the one on the front, may belong to ballgame mythology that now is lost.

Provenance
Update on pre-acquisition history pending.
1973-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Spinden, Ellen S. " The Place of Tajin in Totonac Archaeology." American Anthropologist. vol, 35, no. 2 (1933). pp. 224-270
Palacios, Enrique Juan. Arqueología de Mexico: culturas araica y tolteca (ilustraciones novadosas en parte precedentes de piezas de la colección del autor). Mexico: Imprenta Mundial, 1937. pp. 34-36, 72
Ekholm, Gordon. " Is American Indian Culture Asiatic?" Natural History (1950). pp. 344-51, 382
Proskouriakoff, Tatiana. " Classic Central Veracruz Sculpture." Contributions to American Archaeology and History. 11 (1954). pp. 63-90
Covarrubias, Miguel. Indian Art of Mexico and Central America. New York: Knopf, 1957. pl. XZII
Willey, Gordon R. An Introduction to American Archaeology... 2, 2. New Jersey: Prencice-Hall, 1966. p. 143
" Recent Accessions of American and Canadian Museums." The Art Quarterly Vol. XXXVI, no. 4 (Winter, 1973). p. 427 & 437
Hawley, Henry. "Classic Veracruz Sculptures." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 10 (1974). pp. 321-330 www.jstor.org
"The Year in Review for 1973." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 2 (1974). pp. 73 & 80, no. 28 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. The Art and Architecture of Ancient America: The Mexican, Maya, and Andean Peoples. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1984. 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 = Ulama, the Ballgame of the Mayas and Aztecs, 2000 BC-AD 2000 : from Human Sacrifice to Sport. Leiden: SMD Informatief, 1988. p. 61 & 175, pl. 2, fig. 71
Deletaille, Emile, and Lin Deletaille. Trésors du nouveau monde. Bruxelles: Musées royaux d'art et d'histoire, 1992. fig. 99 a, b
Solis, Felipe. " La Costa del Golfo: El Arte del Centro de Veracruz y del Mundo Huasteco." Mexico en el Mundo de las Colecciones de Arte. Mesoamerica 1 (1994.) pp. 196-7
Whittington, E. Michael. The Sport of Life and Death: The Mesoamerican Ballgame. London: Thames & Hudson, 2001. p. 259, no. 130
Cleveland Museum of Art, David Franklin, and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. pp. 78-9
Mexican Art Abroad Series. (Mexico: Grupo Azabache, 1994)
Exhibition history

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

Year in Review: 1973. The Cleveland Museum of Art (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).

The Sport of Life and Death: The Mesoamerican Ballgame. Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC (September 24-December 30, 2001); New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA (February 16-April 28, 2002); Newark Museum, Newark, NJ (October 1-December 29, 2002).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1973.3