Incense Burner Support (600–900): Art, History and Details

Incense Burner Support (600–900) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This stand, made of a large tube with side panels, originally held a bowl used to ritually burn incense. Modeled on the front is a group that includes the Maya sun deity and two flanking, profile figures in lower relief. All are supported by a turtle, a symbol of the earth and the underworld. Thus, the ensemble may be a model of the cosmos.

Object facts

• Title: Incense Burner Support
• Date: 600–900
• Culture: Mexico, Chiapas, Palenque Region, Maya, Classic period
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: pottery with polychrome
• Dimensions: Overall: 54.7 x 31.3 x 28.8 cm (21 9/16 x 12 5/16 x 11 5/16 in.)
• Collection: AA - Mesoamerica
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1990.174

A detail from the museum

Calcium deposits indicate this incense burner was found in a cave, which the Maya viewed as entrances to the underworld.

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.