Mayan Lidded Tetrapod Bowl with a Paddler in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 2022

Title: Lidded tetrapod bowl with paddler and peccaries

Date: 4th–5th century

Geography: Mexico or Guatemala

Culture: Maya

Medium: Ceramic, cinnabar

Dimensions: H. 12 × W. 11 1/4 × D. 11 1/4 in. (30.48 × 28.58 × 28.58 cm)

Classification: Ceramics-Vessels

Credit Line: Dallas Museum of Art, The Roberta Coke Camp Fund

Accession Number: SL.2.2022.5.2


Carrying the day’s catch on his back, a lucky fisherman rows his small canoe through a mythical realm. The fisherman sports a flowerlike k’in, or "sun" sign, on his head and navigates waters lined by rows of flowers along the rim of the lid and the base of the bowl. Oddly enough, this aquatic landscape is supported on the flat noses of four peccaries, or wild pigs—terrestrial creatures that form the legs of the bowl.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/820263