Tripod Vessel with Painted Motifs

Culture: Teotihuacan
Period: Early Classic period, 250 BCE–600 CE
Date: c.450
Material: Ceramic with painted stucco
made in: Mexico state, Mexico, North and Central America
Classification: Ceramics, containers
Collection: Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas
Current Location: On View, Gallery 114
Dimensions: 5 1/4 x 5 5/8 in. (13.4 x 14.3 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Morton D. May
Rights: Public Domain
Object Number: 338:1978

NOTES

Wearing prominent goggles, the front-facing figure seen on this polychrome vessel also wears a bright green feather headdress. The curving red and white shapes in the headdress are similar to the objects the figure holds in its hands that represent large stone knives, probably obsidian. They bend toward a white and red oval marked with a red trilobed motif. It is clear from other representations on vessels and in mural paintings that this oval likely represents a heart and its blood-filled pericardial sack.

Provenance

- 1965
Everett Rassiga Inc., New York, NY, USA

1965 - 1978
Morton D. May (1914-1983), St. Louis, MO, purchased from Everett Rassiga Inc. [1]

1978 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, given by Morton D. May [2]

Notes:
[1] An invoice dated October 1, 1965 from Everett Rassiga Inc. to Morton D. May documents this purchase, listed as "Teotihuacan Fresco Pot" [May Archives, Saint Louis Art Museum].

[2] A letter dated September 19, 1978 from Morton D. May to James N. Wood, director of the Saint Louis Art Museum, includes the offer of this object as part of a larger donation [SLAM document files]. Minutes of the Acquisitions Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, December 13, 1978.

We regularly update records, which may be incomplete. If you have additional information, please contact us at provenance@slam.org.