- Museum number
- Am1923,Maud.6
- Title
- Series: The Yaxchilan Lintels
- Description
-
Lintel 41: Carved limestone lintel, depicting Lord Bird Jaguar holding a spear and is wearing a battle costume including an elaborate headdress with a Rain God mask. His consort, a lady of Ik lineage, also wears a warrior ornament consisting of a spotted jaguar pelt pulled through a perforated spondylus shell in her headdress.
- Production date
- 760
- Dimensions
-
Height: 62 centimetres
-
Weight: 120 kilograms
-
Width: 94 centimetres
-
Depth: 10 centimetres
- Curator's comments
-
The glyphic text dates the events to 9.16.4.1.1.7 Imix 14 Tzec in the Maya calendar (9th May AD755).
-
The scene forms part of a carefully prescribed sequence of royal accession rituals, including blood-letting and warfare, used to legitimise the authority of Maya rulers.
Schele & Miller 1986
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
Previously on display between Enlightenment and Mexican Galleries
1990 20 Oct-9 Dec, Japan, Tokyo, Setagaya Art Museum, Treasures of the British Museum, cat. no.185
1991 5 Jan-20 Feb, Japan, Yamaguchi, Prefectural Museum of Art, Treasures of the British Museum, cat. no.185
1991 9 Mar-7 May, Japan, Osaka, National Museum of Art, Treasures of the British Museum, cat. no.185
2012 Mar-Jul, Abu Dhabi, Manarat al Saadiyat, Treasures of the World's Cultures
2012-2013 30 Nov-7 Apr, Bonn, Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany, Treasures of the World's Cultures
2015 - 2016 4 Dec - 03 Jul, National Museum of Singapore, Treasures of the World's Cultures
- Acquisition date
- 1923
- Acquisition notes
- Maudslay’s original sculptures, from Yaxchilán in Mexico and Copán in Honduras, were initially deposited at the Victoria and Albert Museum (known as the South Kensington Museum until 1899) in 1885. There appears to have been some lack of clarity over whether these were a gift, or a loan from Maudslay. With Maudslay’s permission, the original sculptures and a selection of casts were transferred to the British Museum, on the grounds their subject matter more properly fell within the British Museum’s purview. The deliveries took place on the 20th (originals) and 22nd (casts) of November 1893. The majority of the casts remained at the V&A, on the understanding that they too would be transferred to the British Museum as soon as space could be found for them. Continued confusion over the legal ownership of the collection (Maudslay, V&A or BM) – see correspondence V&A correspondence archive - probably explains why neither casts nor originals were registered at the time of their arrival. The issue was finally resolved with the transfer of the remaining casts to the British Museum for exhibition in 1923. The originals sculptures were therefore given a 1923 registration number, despite their having been present at the British Museum since 1893.
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Am1923,Maud.6
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: AOA Ethno 1886-315 (Compass number)
-
Previous owner/ex-collection number: 1886 315 (South Kensington Museum No. (Now V&A))
