Maya Polychrome Plate with Dancing Figure

High Museum of Art, Atlanta, acquired by the museum in 1972

Sotheby's, New York, November 22, 1999, lot 82, deaccessioned by the above

Private Collection, New York, acquired at the above auction

Known by the type called  the Tikal Dancer Plates, this finely painted plate features the ubiquitous single figure in a graceful posture of movement indicated by the long arms outstretched, one foot on the toes and the feather flanges of the loincloth swinging out to the side. The lower leg bands have stiffly extended ornaments and there are additional plumes draped at the back. The figure is surrounded by a narrow band of a repeat glyphic phrase probably referring to “surface’ and daysigns; the wider upward flaring wall is painted on one half with three segments of repeat glyphs. The plate is supported on tripod legs with a basal flange cut into a fluid step-fret design. 

Dorie Reents-Budet notes, “[the] stylistic variations within the corpus point to multiple workshops, each expressing their individuality through minor yet consistent variations”. The image of the graceful dancer is suggested to depict “the soul’s dance of apotheosis out of the underworld after having defeated the lords death” (Painting the Maya Universe: Royal Ceramics of the Classic Period, Durham, 1994, p. 197-198).

For examples of the Tikal Dancer Plate type, see ibid., p. 198, fig. 5.37, 5.38.