The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 13, 2025

Dark brown cylindrical vessel with a central figure wearing layers of protective clothing and running forward, one arm stretched in front of them and the other swinging behind, with a ball in front of their face. They wear a long headdress that appears like an animal face with feathers sprouting from the top. A band with geometric patterns runs around the rim of the vessel with similar geometric shapes surrounding the figure.

Vessel with Ballplayer

c. 600–1000

Mexico, Yucatán, Maya

(Chocholá) style (250-900)
earthenware, pigment
Diameter: 18.1 x 15.6 cm (7 1/8 x 6 1/8 in.); Overall: 18 cm (7 1/16 in.)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James C. Gruener 1990.180
Location: 233 Mesoamerican and Intermediate Region

Did You Know?

This vessel was once broken into 34 pieces before being repaired.

Description

Many Mesoamerican people played ball games, using their hips rather than hands and feet to keep the heavy, solid rubber ball in play. Here a Maya ballplayer, wearing a thick protector to shield his torso from injury, dives to intercept the ball, which hovers in front of his face. The scene is situated within stepped walls, probably those of a ball court.
  • ?-1971
    (Lee Moore: Fine Art of the Americas, Miami, FL, 1971, sold to James C. Gruener and Florence C, Gruener)
    1971-1990
    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
  • Merrony, Mark. “The Maya : First Lords of the Jungle." Antiqvvs 3, n. 3 (Summer 2021): 39-44. Reproduced: p. 43
    Turner, Evan H. "Acquisitions: 1990." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 2 (1991): 30-45. p. 33 www.jstor.org
    Young-Sánchez, Margaret. "The Gruener Collection of Pre-Columbian Art." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 79, no. 7 (1992): 234-75. Mentioned: cat. no. 88, p. 272, Reproduced: fig. 88, p.256 www.jstor.org
    Whittington, E. Michael. The Sport of Life and Death The Mesoamerican Ballgame. London: Thames & Hudson, 2001. Mentioned: cat. no. 111, p. 237
    Werness, Maline Diane. Chocholá Ceramics and the Politics of Northwestern Yucatán. 2010. Figure 86 and pp. 62, 168, 278
  • Artlens Exhibition 2019. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer).
    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).
    The Gruener Collection of Pre-Columbian Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 4-November 29, 1992).
  • {{cite web|title=Vessel with Ballplayer|url=false|author=|year=c. 600–1000|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1990.180