Incense Burner

Artist: Unknown

100 B.C.–A.D. 250

Art of the Ancient Americas

By appointment, Wurtele Study Center

Colima is far to the northwest of the Valley of Mexico. Yet in this early incense burner, the local rain god shares his Valley cousin's aspect. His eyes are Tlaloc's goggles, and serpents in his headdress entwine and join to form the handle of the vessel.

Medium

Ceramic

Dimensions

20 × 9 × 9 in. (50.8 × 22.86 × 22.86 cm)

Credit Line

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Olsen

Accession Number

1958.14.21

Geography

Mexico

Culture

Mexico, Colima

Period

Protoclassic Period

Classification

Containers

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
Fred H. Olsen (1891–1986), and Florence Quittenton Olsen, Guilford, Conn.; gift in 1958 to Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.
Bibliography
  • Richard F. Townsend, ed., Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1998),
  • Helen Pollard, "Recent Research in West Mexican Archaeology," Journal of Archeological Research 5 (1997),
  • Michael Kan, Clement W. Meighan, and Henry B. Nicholson, Sculpture of Ancient West Mexico: Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, 2, exh. cat. (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1989), 172, fig. 196
  • George A. Kubler, ed., Pre-Columbian Art of Mexico and Central America (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1986), 160–61, 328, no. 353, fig. 194
  • Jacki Gallagher, Companions of the Dead: Tomb Sculpture from Ancient West Mexico, exh. cat. (Los Angeles: Fowler Museum at UCLA, 1983),
  • Isabel Kelly, "Seven Colima Tombs: An Interpretation of Ceramic Content," Studies in Ancient Mesoamerica 3 (1978), 1–26
  • Betty Bell, ed., The Archaeology of West Mexico (Ajijic, Mexico: West Mexican Society for Advanced Study, 1974),
  • Peter T. Furst, West Mexican Art: Secular or Sacred? The Iconography of Middle American Sculpture (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1973),
  • Salvador Toscano and Federico Canessi, Arte Precolombino del Occidente de Mexico (Mexico City: Dirección General de Educación Extra-Escolar y Estética, 1946),
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

ceremonial objects, figures (representations), incense burners, mythology

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