The Guennol Maya Jade Plaque of a Lord

John A. Stokes

Alastair Bradley and Edith Martin, New York, acquired from the above in 1967

By descent to the present owner

Mary Ann Durgin, “Jades Plaques”, The Guennol Collection, Vol. II, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1982, p. 134

Carved with an imposing figure of a lord with his head turned in profile, the pendant plaque could be considered as miniature stela, as it is finely carved with important attributes found on over life size stone reliefs of rulers. The corpulent figure stands on the delicate outturned feet on the head of a witz altar/mountain, this zoomorphic head represents the first sacred mountain, and here signifies ritual space in which the figure performs and acts within. He holds his raised left hand in a gesture of ceremonial engagement and is adorned with significant clothing and jewelry relevant to Maya courtly life. His thick belt supports a head ornament on the front, suggesting the lord in the guise of a ballplayer wearing a yoke and hacha. The long apron extending below is woven in a guilloche mat design, a large horizontal bead rests on the chest, each wrist and ankle is wrapped by beaded bands and his large-eyed zoomorphic headdress tilts upward with plumes at the back. It is pierced laterally for suspension, twice on the proper left side and once on the right. 

Cf. For an elaborate loincloth/apron as shown on a Maya relief, see Dumbarton Oaks limestone panel, Chancala (PC.B.537), in Alexandre Tokovinine, “Carved Panel’, in Joanne Pillsbury, Miriam Doutriaux Reiko Ishihara-Brito, Alexandre Tokovinine, eds, Ancient Maya Art at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C., 2012, p. 69.