Maya Jade Plaque of a Seated Lord, Late Classic, circa AD 550-950

The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Ancient America, long-term loan, 2001-2011

This jade pendant plaque is masterfully carved in low relief with an elegant and highly detailed image of a lord, seated and gesturing in one of the most definitive images of a Maya elite. His strong and youthful body faces front in a cross-legged position and his head is turned in sharp profile to his right showing the regal extended nose bridge, tear-shaped eye, and relaxed mouth. One hand is planted firmly on his leg and his right hand is raised with delicate fingers flexed in a symbolic gesture, a posturing that is most famously depicted on the Nebaj jade plaque, indicative of a regal encounter or audience scene. The massive headdress features the mythic Principal Bird Deity with long plumes cascading to the back, his wrists are enveloped in thick bead bracelets and he is further adorned with a thin cord necklace suspending two discs.

The whole scene is enclosed in a graceful cartouche frame that represents the maw of the Otherworld, indicating we are looking into a portal to see the deceased continuing in rituals.

Audience scenes of lords are frequently depicted on painted Maya vessels. However, illustrating such an event on jade involved another dimension of materiality. Jade was considered the most valued and sacred material of enduring capability; it was a 'material with soul or spirit' (Stephen Houston, The Life Within, Classic Maya and the Matter of Permanence, New Haven, 2014, p. 93) Carving and polishing hard jade with the idealized portrait of a lord created an important and symbolic precious object. 

The plaque is drilled laterally for suspension. The carver made use of the variegated veins of the jade to have the figure mainly in deep green.