vase;
vessel
- Museum number
- Am1844,0720.971
- Description
-
Vase, vessel made of pottery, with human head emerging from serpent jaws.
- Production date
- 900 - 1521
- Dimensions
-
Height: 12.70 centimetres
-
Width: 12 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- McEwan 1994, p.32
'A human emerging from the jaws of a serpentine dragon is a recurring image in Mesoamerican art. Among their many other connotations, snakes were seen as a metaphor for the umbilical cord connecting new life on the earthly plane with the hidden, spiritual sources of creation. Such images, therefore, evoke ancestral connections and call attention to the threshold dividing the human domain from the invisible but ever-present ancestral spirits.'
- Location
- On display (G27/dc2)
- Exhibition history
-
2012 28 March – 1 July, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Children of the Plumed Serpent
2012 29 July – 25 Nov, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Children of the Plumed Serpent
- Acquisition date
- 1844
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Am1844,0720.971
