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

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

The work and its context

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

In art, ballplayers are shown wearing palmas atop hip protectors like one displayed nearby. The palma covers the chest, as if to insulate it from bruising encounters with the rubber ball. The stone sculptures are too heavy for wear but may mimic the shape of lighter-weight gear used during play. This elegant, fan-shaped palma is adorned with scrolls that form grotesque heads in profile. Traces of blue indicate that like many ancient sculptures it was brightly painted.

Object facts

• Title: Ballgame Palma
• Date: c. 900–1100
• Culture: Mexico, Gulf Coast, Classic Veracruz style (600-1100)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: stone, pigment traces
• Dimensions: Overall: 42.7 x 8.3 x 19.6 cm (16 13/16 x 3 1/4 x 7 11/16 in.)
• Collection: AA - Mesoamerica
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1990.249

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James C. Gruener

Further reading listed by the museum

• Von Winning, Hasso, and Alfred Stendahl. Pre-Columbian Art of Mexico and Central America: Text and Notes by Hasso Von Winning. Selection of Plates by Alfred Stendahl. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1968.
• 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.