  About the Artwork
  
  
  Mortuary offerings were placed in the tombs of Mayan noblemen to assist the deceased in their passage to the watery underworld. Funerary objects such as this were often decorated with symbols of water, marine vegetation, and animals. The painted body and lid of this vessel depict white water lilies floating against a green blue background; the water lily was seen as a plant that connects the underworld of water to the air of our world above. The petals of the lilies enclose red hieroglyphic signs, which allude to illustrious rulers and their titles. The carved areas, colored red, feature a complex array of interlocking scrolls that also symbolize water.
  
  
  Title
  Tripod Vessel with Slab-legs
  
  
  Artwork Date
  between 300 and 600
  
  Artist
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  Life Dates
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  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  Precolumbian
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
  Maya
  
  
  Medium
  Earthenware with stucco and polychrome pigments
  
  
  Dimensions
  Overall: 10 1/2 × 8 inches (26.7 × 20.3 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Ceramics
  
  
  Department
  Indigenous Americas
  
  
  Credit
  Founders Society Purchase, Arthur H. Nixon Fund
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  1984.12
  
  
  Copyright
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