The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 13, 2025
Head from a Building's Façade
250–900 CE
(250-900)
Overall: 33.2 x 17.5 x 29.7 cm (13 1/16 x 6 7/8 x 11 11/16 in.)
Location: Not on view
Did You Know?
Maya elites practiced cranial modification on infants to achieve the sloped profile seen in this tenoned head.Description
The Maya often lavishly decorated the exteriors of buildings, transforming them into elaborate sculptural works in their own right. This sensitively modeled head, made from fragile stucco, would have been affixed to the façade of a palace or temple via the tenon (projection) at the back of the head. The rest of the body may have been modeled separately.- ?-1972(Stendahl Art Galleries, Los Angeles, CA, 1972, sold to James C. and Florence C. Gruener)1972-1990James C. [1903-1990] and Florence C. [1908-1982] Gruener, Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art1990The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Young-Sãnchez, Margaret. "The Gruener Collection of Pre-Columbian Art." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 79, no. 7 (1992): 234-75. Reproduced: cover; Mentioned: p. 255 www.jstor.org
- The Gruener Collection of Pre-Columbian Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 4-November 29, 1992).Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art; February 4 - November 29, 1992. "The Gruener Collection of Pre-Columbian Art." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art. 79 (September, 1992.) cat. no. 90, p. 272, repr. fig. 90, cover.
- {{cite web|title=Head from a Building's Façade|url=false|author=|year=250–900 CE|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1990.183