This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Feb. 16, 2011 - The entry into the Art Museum's new exhibition, "Fiery Pool: The Maya and the Mythic Sea," is a spectacular portal into another world. Monumental and ornate, the fiberglass cast of a temple facade from Caracol in Belize certainly has the requisite "wow!" factor. But it is also dense with water imagery, hinting at the themes that the exhibition so richly and so innovatively explores.
Beginning with this dramatic introduction, says Matthew Robb, assistant curator of ancient American and Native American art, the exhibition offers a new take on this old civilization, one that shows how central water was to the Maya understanding of life, death and the cosmos and "how pervasive water imagery is throughout the various media and across time."
In the catalog accompanying the exhibition, organizers Daniel Finamore and Stephen D. Houston write that the exhibition "greatly broadens our understanding of ancient Maya people by exploring the profound but little recognized influence the oceans, and water generally, had on their perception of the world around them. Until recently, the Maya have been viewed ... (as) deeply oriented to land."
It's not just that the Maya, most of whom did not live by the sea or visit the sea, portrayed the sea and its creatures. Things from the sea were also vitally important to them as objects in and of themselves.
Stingray spines were used in the Maya's defining blood-letting rituals to draw blood. Conch shells connected them to their dead ancestors; they could hear the breath of their ancestors when they held the shells to their ears. Pieces of polished Spondylus shell could be used to form a garment or ear flares.
Shells were also an artistic material, as the wonderful frogs and shrimp made of shell illustrate.
The exhibition does not take a chronological or geographical approach. Rather it is organized by four themes. Within each are objects of "great artistic beauty and historic significance," says Robb, who takes pains to emphasize "how remarkable it is to have so many objects from so many places in one place."
Water and the cosmos
The ancient Maya lived in southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Belize; their civilization lasted for hundreds of years, although it peaked between 250-900 A.D. during what is called the Classic period. By the time the Spanish arrived in the early 1500s, the Maya city-states, with their distinctive architecture, had collapsed.
"The ancient Maya understood the sea as a fiery pool and the land as the back of a turtle or crocodile" floating on that sea, says Robb. "They'll see an alligator swimming -- the way the scales rise above the water like a mountain range."
This first section of the exhibit looks to those cosmological creatures, Maya deities like Chahk (a rain god) and the way Maya rulers represent themselves. In addition to the temple facade at the entrance, among the stand-outs are:
- Mural with a world turtle (watercolor on paper by Heather Hurst, a staff artist for the San Bartolo Project): This painting, which captures a detail from a mural, provides a glimpse into the Maya mythological universe. Inside the swimming world turtle dances the Maize god, flanked by Chahk (the rain god) and the God of Terrestrial Waters (like rivers).
- Lidded ceramic vessel of a world turtle (300-400 A.D., Tikal): This utilitarian bowl describes the world: A bird represents the sky, the turtle the earth, and a horizontal band the water. The three-dimensional bird's head is also the handle of the lid, and the turtle's head and legs form the legs of the bowl.
- Panel with a seated ruler in a watery cave (795 A.D. Cancuen, Guatemala): Aside from being a striking carving, this panel illustrates the how Maya rulers "were believed to exist in two worlds at once: a royal court ... and a cavity filled with water," as the catalog explains. Water lilies abound -- at the top, a fish nibbles at a water lily (a theme repeated in other objects), the lord is seated on a water lily and his retinue wear water lily head dresses. This piece also includes the signature of the artist, to the left of the panel.
Creatures of the fiery pool
Maya artists were "keen observers of the natural world," said Robb, so many of the objects in this second section of the exhibition are creatures of the sea or those dependent on it. In particular, it spotlights shells. The widespread use of shell, as both an artistic subject and artistic "canvas," reflects the Maya's elaborate trade networks. Among the stand-outs are:
- Clay lobster effigy (1550 A.D., Lamanai, Belize): The lobster's mouth is open, displaying the head of a diety. Inside the effigy was found an offering of a stingray spine and shark's teeth, central to pre-Columbian Maya rituals. Interestingly, though, this artifact -- the only known effigy of a lobster -- was discovered in a church, revealing how Maya beliefs and religious practices persisted after the conquest and became incorporated into Catholicism.
- Ceramic chocolate frothing pot shaped like a shell (400-500, Tabasco): From a 21st-century perspective, this is a whimsical reminder that chocolate was a gift from the New World. According to the catalog, "drinkers blew into the short spout to aerate the beverage" before they drank it. Guess they didn't need baristas.
- Shell plaque with a lord smoking (700-800 A.D., Usumacinta region): You have to look hard, but this plaque has a number of striking elements, starting with the conch shell, from which a snarling serpent emerges. There are also some delicate artistic touches -- the lord's curling fingers, the wisps of smoke he's exhaling and his deer head dress.
Navigating the cosmos
This third section, says Robb, deals with "understanding bodies of water as navigable trade over which goods, such as gold, turquoise and obsidian, travel." Robb emphasizes, though, that for the Maya trade was not just a mercantile act. It existed in a religious setting; trade was "freighted with meaning." Among the knock-outs are:
- Sculpture of the Jester God (550 A.D., Altun Ha, Belize): This sculpted head is one of the most incredible objects in the entire exhibition. Carved from a single piece of jadeite, it weighs 10 pounds. The dramatic lighting awakens the jade's green color, the color of the Caribbean.
- Taino vomit spoon (750 A.D., Altun Ha, Belize): This bone spoon isn't particularly attractive; in fact, it's rather plain and nondescript. What's intriguing is that it's from the Taino who lived in Cuba, evidence of the Maya's far-flung trade network. And it makes me wonder what the Maya themselves made of the object. Was it a curiosity?
- At Chichen Itza in Mexico, people and precious items were sacrificed into a nearby sacred cenote, a sinkhole filled with groundwater. Several remarkable items retrieved from the cenote are on display in this part of the exhibition, including a jade plaque, a gold disk decorated with a scene of a great naval battle, a stunning jade pectoral (or necklace) and three gold face ornaments of the god Quetzalcoatl.
Birth to rebirth
Representations of the cycle of life and death, birth and rebirth, are common in many cultures. For the Maya, they are inextricably linked to water.
"He entered the water" is a metaphor for death, says Robb, and the spirit ancestors reside in the water. Their breath can be heard in the conch shell. This section includes:
- Figurines from Jaina Island, Mexico: While many of the portraits of gods and rulers are highly stylized, these small figurines are remarkably human, dynamic and individual -- although it's not known whether they were portraits of actual people. There's a drunk with his head cocked to one side, a couple caught in an embrace and a stern tattooed lord, among others.
- Limestone lintel depicting a bloodletting rite (723 A.D., Yaxchilan): Saving the best for last, this extraordinary piece is widely acknowledged as a masterpieces of Maya art. It is an astonishing depiction of a Maya queen, holding a bowl with a visible stingray spine. She appears in a trance, mesmerized by the apparition of the rain god Chahk emerging from a serpent's mouth. The detail is exquisite; the scene, powerful. This one alone is worth the price of admission.