Water-Lily Vessel

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780–810

Aj Maxam (Maya)
Vicinity of Naranjo, Petén region, Guatemala

The simple, elegant design of this vessel reflects the refined abilities of the artist, who painted images of water lilies and a hieroglyphic text with a perfectly controlled brush. The inscription below was the first to be deciphered on a Classic Maya vessel. It states the name of the artist, Ah Maxam (aj maxam), and declares that he is a member of the royal lineage of the kingdom of Naranjo. His mother and father are also named on this vessel, as well as on other dynastic monuments from the region. For the Maya, water lilies were symbolic of the watery surface of the Underworld and the earth’s regenerative powers.

Status: On View, Gallery 161
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Aj Maxam
Title: Water-Lily Vessel
Places: Petén (Object made in:), Naranjo (Object Probably made in), Guatemala (Object made in:)
Date: 780 CE-810 CE
Medium: Earthenware and pigment
Inscriptions: Signed bottom edge, on slip, in black slip: "its'aat Aj Maxam [wise person; he from Maxam]".
Dimensions: 23.5 × 16 × 15.8 cm (9 5/16 × 6 5/16 × 6 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Ethel T. Scarborough Fund
Reference Number: 1986.1080
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/126858/manifest.json

Michael Coe, The Maya Scribe and His World, exh. cat. (Grolier Club, 1973), 102–103, no. 47.
Everett McNear, High Culture in the Americas before 1500, exh. cat. (Arts Club Chicago, 1982), 9, 15.
Dorie Reents-Budet, “The Discovery of a Ceramic Artist and Royal Patron Among the Classic Maya.” MexIcon 9, 6 (1987) 123–26, fig. 2.
Dorie Reents-Budet, “Elite Maya Pottery and Artisans as Social Indicators,” Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, 8, 1 (1988): 71–89.
David Stuart, “Hieroglyphs on Maya Vessels,” Maya Vase Book, vol. 1, Justin Kerr, ed. (New York, Kerr Associates, 1989), 149–159, fig. 9 .
Richard Townsend, ed., The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago/Prestel Verlag, 1992), cat. 126.
Dorie Reents-Budet, Painting the Maya Universe: Royal Ceramics of the Classic Period, exh. cat. (Duke University Museum of Art, 1994), 319, cat. 10.
Adam Hering, “A Royal Artist at Naranjo: Notes on a Late Classic Maya Cylinder Vessel,” Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (1995-96), 35-48, fig. 4.
Dorie Reents-Budet, “Neutron Activation and Maya Pottery,” presented at Texas Conference of Art Historians (Apr. 27, 1985), unpublished report, copy in curatorial object file, Arts of the Americas.
Mary Miller and Simon Martin, Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya, exh. cat. (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and Thames & Hudson, 2003), 153.
Richard Townsend with Elizabeth Pope, Indian Art of the Americas at the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 2016), 200, cat. 157.
Christophe Helmke, Yuriy Polyukhovych, Dorie J. Reents-Budet, and Ronald Bishop, “A Bowl Fit for a King: Ceramic Vessels of the Naranjo Court Bearing the Kokom Emblem Glyph,” The PARI Journal (2017) 18(1), 9-24, 13, fig. 2b [K635/MS1375].

Rockford College Art Gallery, IL, Nov.–Dec. 1971, no cat.
Grolier Club, N.Y., The Maya Scribe and His World, Apr. 20–June 5, 1971, cat. 47.
Arts Club of Chicago, High Culture in the Americas before 1500, Nov. 15–Dec. 31, 1982, cat. 15.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes, Oct. 10, 1992–Jan. 3, 1993, cat. 126; Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Feb. 4–Apr. 18, 1993; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, June 6–Aug. 15, 1993.
Durham, NC, Duke University Museum of Art, Painting of the Maya Universe, Jan. 15–Mar. 27, 1994, cat. plate 10; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Apr. 15–June 26, 1994; Denver Art Museum, July 15–Sept. 15, 1994; Los Angeles County Museum, Oct. 8, 1994–Jan. 8, 1995; New Haven, CT, Yale University Art Gallery, Feb. 10–Apr. 23, 1995.
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya, Sept. 4, 2004–Jan. 2, 2005, cat. plate 85; Washington DC, National Gallery of Art, Apr. 4–July 25, 2005.

Marianne and Robert Huber, Dixon, IL, by 1969 [according to correspondence from M. Huber, Feb. 14, 1986, and P. Dedrick, Rockford College, Oct. 7 and Oct. 28, 1986, copy in curatorial object file]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1986.

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