Design on a pottery vase found at Nebaj, Guatamala.
(Fleischman Collection)
Vases painted in the early Maya style are unhappily very rare, though two magnificent vases have been discovered, one at Chama and the other at Nebaj. The design on the latter I am enabled to figure (Pl. [XXIV]; p. 310) through the kindness of Mr. C. Fleischmann, the possessor. It is cylindrical in shape, of the best quality red ware, hard, light and well-fired, and covered with a highly burnished yellow-brown slip on which the designs are painted in red and yellow with black outlines. The scene represents a visit paid to a chief by an inferior; the former is seated on a dais, and wears a head-dress terminating in a flower from which hangs a fish, a form of ornament also observed on reliefs at Naranjo, Palenque and Chichen Itza. His visitor is offering a pouch containing copal, and the rest of the field is filled with the figures of three attendants, one of which is engaged, apparently, in pouring some liquid from a vessel over two egg-like objects on a small table. The treatment of the figures and accompanying glyphs is particularly free and bold, and the whole scene is an excellent example of Maya draughtsmanship at its best. Fragments of vases painted in similar style, though not quite so good, have been found in the same region, and also in the Uloa valley, though the specimens from the latter locality exhibit certain peculiarities of drawing which prevent them from being considered typically Maya (Fig. [67]). The use of a slip-covering to pottery is found throughout the whole area, though it is by no means constant; the colour is most commonly red or yellow, though white and brown are also found. Painted decoration is also in slip, of similar colours, and where figures are represented they are usually outlined in black (e.g. Pl. [XXIV]). The funerary pottery of British Honduras shows a greater variety of hue; in many cases the slip (white) is so thick as almost to amount to a kind of stucco, and on this the details are painted in brilliant colours, including a bright red and a turquoise-blue (Pl. [IX, 7–11]; p. 82).
Fig. 67.—Bat-design from a vase; Uloa valley.
(After Gordon)
Fig. 68.—Pottery vase from Chama, Guatemala.
(After Seler)
