The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Head of a Young Noble

Head of a Young Noble

746
(250-900)
stone
Overall: 53.3 x 35.6 x 52.1 cm (21 x 14 x 20 1/2 in.); Former: 52.8 x 35.3 cm (20 13/16 x 13 7/8 in.)
Gift of the Hanna Fund 1953.154
Location: 233 Mesoamerican and Intermediate Region

Description

This young noble may be a political official of 8th-century Copán, an important site in eastern Maya territory. The noble, who embodies the Maya ideal of masculine beauty, wears circular ear ornaments and a headband, above which the tied hair rises. The meaning of the disembodied hand that cups the chin is debated. The head, collected by Harvard archaeologists in the 1890s, comes from the facade of a building may have been used as a council house by a Copán ruler and his advisors during a crisis that rocked the city’s ruling dynasty. On the structure’s upper level, above woven mat signs that symbolized political authority, eight figures were enthroned in T-shaped recesses. This head is from one of these figures. Beneath each recess was a hieroglyph thought to name an important town (or family) within Copán’s domain. The figures may represent these towns’ advisors to the king, whose image crowned the structure.
  • Milliken, William M. "Mayan Head." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 41, no. 4 (April 1954): 63-64. Mentioned: P. 63-64 www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 364 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 292 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 292 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 396 archive.org
    Schele, Linda, Mary Ellen Miller, and Justin Kerr. The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art. New York: G. Braziller, 1986.
    Published as: Head of the God of the Number Zero Mentioned: P. 281; reproduced: P. 293, pl. 110
    Mayer, Karl Herbert. Maya Monuments: Sculptures of Unknown Provenance, Supplement 1. Berlin: Verlag von Flemming, 1987. Mentioned: P. 19-20, no. 18; Reproduced: pl. 80
    Young-Sanchez, Margaret. "Tenoned Head." In Interpretations: Sixty-Five Works from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Museum of Art, no. 44. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art,1991.
    Published as: Tenoned Head Mentioned and reproduced: No. 44
    Coe, Michael, “From Huaquero to Connoisseur: The Early Market in Pre-Columbian Art.” In Collecting the Pre-Columbian Past : A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, 6th and 7th October 1990. Elizabeth Hill Boone, ed. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1993. Mentioned pp. 285-286; reproduced p. 287.
  • Cleveland, OH:The Cleveland Museum of Art; 1986. Fort Worth, TX: The Kimbell Museum of Art; 1986."The Blood of Kings: A New interpretation of Maya Art."
    In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr.. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 4-April 7, 1958).
    Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art; March 4-April 6, 1958. "In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr." cat. no. 170.
  • {{cite web|title=Head of a Young Noble|url=false|author=|year=746|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1953.154