Advanced Search 
Standing human figure
Guatemala (?)
Classic period
A.D. 450–700
Object Place: Guatemala, Alta Verapaz or adjacent Southern Highlands (?)
Medium/Technique
Earthenware: unslipped and incised
Dimensions
46 x 18.5 x 18 cm (18 1/8 x 7 5/16 x 7 1/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Landon T. Clay
Accession Number1988.1222b
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsCeramics – Pottery – Earthenware
DescriptionThis is the body portion of a standing human figure with a removable tenoned head (1988.1222a). The figure's arms are bent at the elbows, hands in front of the body and clenched as if the figure originally held now-lost objects. He wears an elaborately decorated (incised) loincloth and hip cloth surmounted by a large knot. Wide bands with frontal knot adorn his ankles. Around his neck is a wide fringed band from which hangs a frontal skeletal face pendant from which is suspended two profile saurian heads.
ProvenanceBetween about 1974 and 1981, probably purchased in Guatemala by John B. Fulling (b. 1924 – d. 2005), The Art Collectors of November, Inc., Pompano Beach, FL; May 20, 1987, sold by John B. Fulling to Landon T. Clay, Boston; 1988, year-end gift of Landon Clay to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 25, 1989)
NOTE: This is one in a group of Maya artifacts (MFA accession nos. 1988.1169 – 1988.1299) known as the “November Collection” after John Fulling’s company, the Art Collectors of November, Inc. John Fulling sold this group of objects to MFA donor Landon Clay in 1987, and they were given to the Museum the following year.
Evidence suggests that John Fulling built the November Collection from sources in Guatemala between 1974 and 1981. Only a portion of what he acquired during this time came to the MFA in 1988. It is not possible to determine precisely which objects were acquired when or from whom.
NOTE: This is one in a group of Maya artifacts (MFA accession nos. 1988.1169 – 1988.1299) known as the “November Collection” after John Fulling’s company, the Art Collectors of November, Inc. John Fulling sold this group of objects to MFA donor Landon Clay in 1987, and they were given to the Museum the following year.
Evidence suggests that John Fulling built the November Collection from sources in Guatemala between 1974 and 1981. Only a portion of what he acquired during this time came to the MFA in 1988. It is not possible to determine precisely which objects were acquired when or from whom.