Ring-Base Vessel (c. 600–1000): Art, History and Details

Ring-Base Vessel (c. 600–1000) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The Ulúa region of Honduras, to the east of Maya territory, is best known for white marble vessels with walls ornamented in low relief and handles carved as animal heads, here bats but also felines, birds, monkeys, and others. This small example is distinguished by the crispness of its carved scrolls and the triangular cutouts of its pedestal base.

Object facts

• Title: Ring-Base Vessel
• Date: c. 600–1000
• Culture: Honduras, Maya, Ulúa Valley
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: marble
• Dimensions: Overall: 9.5 x 13.5 x 10.1 cm (3 3/4 x 5 5/16 x 4 in.)
• Collection: AA - Mesoamerica
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1990.170

A detail from the museum

One of two vessels that were the first ancient American artworks collected by James and Florence Gruener.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James C. Gruener

Further reading listed by the museum

• Stone, Doris. Masters in Marble. [New Orleans]: Dept. of Middle American Research, Tulane University, 1938.
• 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.