Seated Female Figure with Cooking Utensils and a Dog Maker: Unknown

A.D. 600–900

Art of the Ancient Americas

On view, 1st floor, Art of the Ancient Americas

A seated noble Maya woman prepares tamales, or steamed maize cakes, while an eager little dog sits at her side. She wears a huipil, or upper body garment, that exposes her breasts, and her hair is bound into a turban similar to those worn by Maya women in Guatemala today.

Medium

Ceramic with pigment

Dimensions

7 1/2 in. (19.1 cm)

Credit Line

Stephen Carlton Clark, B.A. 1903, Fund

Accession Number

1973.88.4

Geography

Mexico

Culture

Mexico, probably Campeche, Jaina Island, Maya

Period

Late Classic Period

Classification

Sculpture

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Alfred Stendahl, to 1956; Fred Olsen, New Haven, Conn., to 1973; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.
Bibliography
  • Dorie Reents-Budet, Painting the Maya Universe: Royal Ceramics of the Classical Period, exh. cat. (Durham, N.C: Duke University Press, 1994),
  • Handbook of the Collections, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), 318, ill
  • Linda Schele and Mary E. Miller, The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art (Fort Worth, Tex.: Kimbell Art Museum, 1986),
  • George A. Kubler, ed., Pre-Columbian Art of Mexico and Central America (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1986), 135, 294, no. 301, fig. 149
  • Christopher Corson, Maya Anthropomorphic Figurines from Jaina Island, Campeche (Ramona, Calif.: Ballena Press, 1976), 3, 178–79
  • "Acquisitions, 1973," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin 35, no. 1 (Summer 1974), 76, ill
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

human figures (visual works)

Subject

dogs (animals) seated figures women

Technical metadata and APIs

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