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Vessel Depicting a Sacrificial Ceremony for a Royal Accession
Maya (Mexico or Guatemala)
750–800, probably 753
- Medium
- Ceramic and pigment
- Classification
- Ceramics
- Dimensions
- H.: 19.7 cm (7 3/4 in.)
- Culture
- Mexico
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of the Americas
- Credit line
- Ada Turnbull Hertle Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This vessel, used to consume a chocolate drink, depicts a key event in a royal Maya accession ceremony, which shows the relationship between human sacrifice and the assumption of power. The expectant king is flanked by servants, musicians, and masked nobles, while a terrified captive—bound to a scaffold—awaits his death. It is probable that the victim was a warrior from a rival community defeated by the prospective king during a coronation war. Such sacrifices were required as proof of a new ruler’s military abilities, provided an offering to his patron gods, and served as a sign of the triumphant reign to follow.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
