Ballgame Palma (900–1100): Art, History and Details

Ballgame Palma (900–1100) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Stone palmas, so-called today for their palm-frond-like shape, are ceremonial sculptures that may replicate lightweight gear worn over the chest during the ballgame. Palma imagery is not well-studied and the meaning of the caiman (New World alligator) carved on both sides of this example is unknown. The tail is beautifully adapted to the palma's curved upper edge.

Object facts

• Title: Ballgame Palma
• Date: 900–1100
• Culture: Mexico, Gulf Coast, Classic Veracruz style (600-1100)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: stone, pigment
• Dimensions: Overall: 43.5 x 24 x 15 cm (17 1/8 x 9 7/16 x 5 7/8 in.)
• Collection: AA - Mesoamerica
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1990.253

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James C. Gruener

Further reading listed by the museum

• Young-Sánchez, Margaret. "The Gruener Collection of Pre-Columbian Art." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 79, no. 7 (1992): 234-75.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.