Maya Basal-Flanged Lidded Polychrome Bowl, Early Classic, AD 250 - 450

Stendahl Galleries, Los Angeles
Edwin and Cherie Silver, Los Angeles, acquired from the above in 1971

Inventoried by Hasso von Winning, April 25, 1971, no. 86

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, The Magnificent Maya, November 14, 1975 - June 30, 1976

Voluminous lidded bowls were important vessels in the Early Classic era. Cylinder vessels primarily illustrated narrative mythology, and large two-part lidded vessels, used to store food offerings, provided a three-dimensional form to portray important iconography. This vessel features four panels of the stylized fish monster or shark, known as xoc, each separated by panels of verticals bands with crenelated edges. The domed lid is decorated with three panels of dotted and interwoven emblems representing water, the handle rising above is painted with a star sign.

The xoc fish monster was the mysterious and most powerful creature of the sea, idealized from Olmec through Aztec times. The supernatural fish monster was vividly depicted in San Lorenzo Monument 58 in 1000 BC (Benson and de la Fuente, eds., Olmec World, 1996, cat. no. 16), portrayed with the large head, toothy mouth, and bifurcated tail as shown here. The xoc monsters on this vessel are enlivened by human eyes, with the body elaborately decorated with stylized piscine scaly elements. Actual shark teeth have been found in caches and burials not only on coastal sites but far inland.

For basal flanged lidded bowls, see Schmidt, de la Garza, and Nalda, eds., Maya, 1998, cat. nos. 225-226.