Detail of a Maya Vessel with the Rebirth of the Maize God in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 2022

Title: Vessel with the rebirth of the Maize God

Date: 7th–8th century

Geography: Mexico, Calakmul, Campeche

Culture: Maya

Medium: Ceramic, pigment

Dimensions: H. 6 1/8 × W. 4 5/8, 14.143 oz. (15.5 × 11.7 × 4.5 cm, 401g)

Classification: Ceramics-Vessels

Credit Line: Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City, Secretaría de Cultura–Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia

Accession Number: SL.2.2022.13.6

Reclining on his back with arms and legs bent, the Maize God adopts the conventional pose that artists employed to depict babies. In this variation of his aquatic rebirth, he emerges from a cleft head, possibly representing a seed. Below, tadpoles swim in dark waters. The vessel was left as an offering in an elite tomb at the powerful city of Calakmul. Its decoration, evoking the Maize God’s death and rebirth, provided an optimistic model for the death and afterlife of rulers.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/854902