The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 19, 2022

Carved Vessel

c. 600-1000

Mexico, Campeche, Maya, Chocholá Style

Earthenware

Overall: 12.1 x 16.3 cm (4 3/4 x 6 7/16 in.)

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James C. Gruener 1990.173

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

The text on the rim mentions a young man, suggesting this vessel was involved in a rite-of-passage ceremony.

Description

A firefly is carved on both sides of this Maya vessel, which is from the Yucatán Peninsula. Among the most common of insects to appear in Maya art, the firefly seems to be associated with things that twinkle in the dark—stars and cigars, the latter a symbol that identifies creatures of the night.

Provenance
?-1958
(Black Tulip Galleries, Inc., Dallas, TX, 1958, sold to James C. and Florence C. Gruener)
1958-1990
James C. [1903-1990] and Florence C. [1908-1982] Gruener, Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art
1990
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Citations
Young-Sánchez, Margaret. "The Gruener Collection of Pre-Columbian Art." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 79, no. 7 (1992): 234-75. Referenced: cat. no. 83, p. 272, Reproduced: fig. 83, p. 256 www.jstor.org
Maurer, Evan M., and Molly Hennen. Symboles sacrés: quatre mille ans d'art des Amériques. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2002. p. 110, Cat. No. 83
Exhibition history

The Gruener Collection of Pre-Columbian Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 4-November 29, 1992).

Sacred Symbols: Three Thousand Years of Native American Art [FRAME]. Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France (July 16-September 29, 2002); Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, Rouen, France (October 24, 2002-January 13, 2003); Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, 69001 Lyon, France (February 19-April 29, 2003); Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes, Rennes, France (May 27-August 18, 2003); Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (organizer) (October 26, 2003-January 11, 2004).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1990.173