The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 13, 2025

Earthenware sculpture of a figure with monkey-like features and a lanky human body wearing a large headdress and layers of jewelry and sitting cross-legged on a domed base. The figure is colored remnants of burnt orange, blue, and yellow. They bare their teeth, showing fangs, as they lean forward and over a mask held in their left hand, their right hand hovering over it, as if at work.

Artisan

250–600 CE

Guatemala, Petén region, Maya style

(250-900), Maya style (250-900)
earthenware with colored slips
Overall: 56.5 x 22 x 35.5 cm (22 1/4 x 8 11/16 x 14 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1994.12.1
Location: 233 Mesoamerican and Intermediate Region

Description

These figures represent the supernatural patrons of the visual arts and writing: the brothers Hun Batz and Hun Chuen ("One Monkey" and "One Artisan"). The two were refined artists but also bullies who tormented their younger brothers, who took revenge by transforming their elders into monkeys. Many Maya representations of the painter-scribes immortalize this fate by depicting the pair with both simian and human features, as here. The brothers are shown engaged in artistic or scribal pursuits. Sitting on high-domed bases that may have served as the lids of incense or offering bowls, each apparently once grasped a tool in his upper hand-for instance, a paint brush or a stylus for writing. In the lower hand, one cradles a small mask and the other, a piece of bark that likely refers to the beaten bark from which the Maya made books.
  • Cleveland Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisitions to the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection,” August 26, 1994, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
    Bergh, Susan E. "'The Art of Those Who Lived Here Before the White Man Came': Collecting the Ancient Americas at the Cleveland Museum of Art." In Collecting the “Other Americas”: Ancient Americas Collections in American Art Museums, edited by Victoria I. Lyall, and Ellen Hoobler, 67- 82. Denver, Colorado: Mayer Center for Ancient and Latin American Art at the Denver Art Museum, 2025. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 77, fig. 16
  • Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya. National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (April 4-July 25, 2004); Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA (September 4, 2004-January 2, 2005).
    Washington, D.C.: The National Gallery of Art; April 4- July 25, 2004. San Francisco, CA: The California Palace of the Legion of Honor; Spetember 4, 2004- January 2, 2005. "Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya." ex.cat.no. 65, p. 134.
    Brussels, Belgium: Musees Royaux d'Art et d' Histoire; September 25- December 27, 1992. "Tresors du Nouveau Monde." cat. no. 178- 179.
  • {{cite web|title=Artisan|url=false|author=|year=250–600 CE|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1994.12.1