Carved Stone Vessel (700–1000): Art, History and Details

Carved Stone Vessel (700–1000) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This stone vessel, made by eastern neighbors of the Maya, is one of the finest and largest of its kind. On the exterior are several motifs that combine to create an unusually complex design that features a grotesque head, either in profile or front-facing, with a leg near its mouth. In the main panel a frontal version of the head hovers over two legs, the knees pointed sharply outward. Beside each leg is a lively human, rarely seen in such works. Little is known about the motifs’ meanings or the vessel’s use.

Object facts

• Title: Carved Stone Vessel
• Date: 700–1000
• Culture: Northwest Honduras, Ulúa Valley, 8th-10th century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: marble
• Dimensions: Overall: 27 x 30.3 x 17.4 cm (10 5/8 x 11 15/16 x 6 7/8 in.)
• Collection: AA - Mesoamerica
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1990.9

A detail from the museum

Carved in the round, the vessel's handles suggest a feline that emerges from a serpent-like head with an upturned snout.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Young-Sánchez, Margaret. "Notable Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 3 (1991): 63-147.
• Schafer, Anne Louise. "On the Edge of the Maya World." Archaeology. vol. 45, no. 2. (March/ April, 1992).
• Deletaille, Emile, and Lin Deletaille. Trésors du nouveau monde. Bruxelles: Musées royaux d'art et d'histoire, 1992.

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.