Shell with Seated Noble (600–900): Art, History and Details

Shell with Seated Noble (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 plaque, perhaps meant to be held in the hand for close viewing, is delicately incised with a ruler who leans toward a serpent-headed conch shell at the lower left. The lord, who smokes a cigar, is simply dressed in a loincloth; a band of body paint or tattoos appears on his chest.

Object facts

• Title: Shell with Seated Noble
• Date: 600–900
• Culture: Mexico or Central America, Maya
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: conch shell
• Dimensions: Overall: 16.6 x 7.9 x 3.5 cm (6 9/16 x 3 1/8 x 1 3/8 in.)
• Collection: AA - Mesoamerica
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1965.550

A detail from the museum

A Maya nobleman smokes a cigar as he reaches toward a shell with a serpent.

Collection credit

The Norweb Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• Stechow, Wolfgang. "Cleveland's Golden Anniversary Acquisitions." Art News (September 1966)
• The Art Gallery Magazine (October 1966).

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.