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46
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Codex vase with young scribe Polychrome terracotta, traces o…
See original version (French)
46
-
Codex vase with young scribe Polychrome terracotta, traces o…
See original version (French)
Estimate €5,000 - €7,000
Voluntary lot
Description
Codex vase with young scribe
Polychrome terracotta, traces of roots, marks of age, small chips
Maya, Mirador region, Guatemala
Late Classic period, 700-800 AD
13.3 × 10 cm
Provenance :
Former Samuel Dubiner Collection, Tel Aviv, Israel, 1960s - 1970s.
Arte Primitivo, New York, 2 December 2003.
Former private collection in Florida since 2003.
This vase belongs to the group of famous "codex vases", so named because of their fine black-brown line painting on a light background, reminiscent of the aesthetics of Mayan painted manuscripts that have almost entirely disappeared. These works are among the most refined examples of classical Maya painting.
The scene depicts two young seated scribes or dignitaries, probably associated with the twin heroes Hunahpu and Xbalanque from the Popol Vuh. The figures appear to be conversing or reading in front of open codices, in a scene that evokes the transmission of knowledge, sacred writing and intellectual functions within the Mayan courts. Their fishnet headdresses, their finery and the mottled patterns on their clothes symbolically recall the fur of the jaguar, an animal associated with knowledge, nocturnal power and the passage between worlds.
The glyphic register separating the figures contains repeated signs that some specialists interpret as a formula linked to creation or ritual appearance, which could be read as "it came into existence". The work as a whole is distinguished by the elegance of the drawing, the exceptional fluidity of the line and the silent atmosphere of the scene, in which the painter favours restraint and graphic intelligence rather than monumentality.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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