The Maya

The Pre-Columbian cultures thoroughly fascinate me. What I love about ancient art, or old world art, is that it's boggling how they did what they did. I mean, really, mind blowing. And the Maya, Axtec, Taino, Olmec, Zapotec, and Inca are the cultures that drew me into Caribbean art as an art historian, so I feel as if everything I do in both creating art and studying it goes back to those cultures. They are in multiple ways, an origin of me in art... especially the Mayan. The ballgame specifically captivates me. I think it's sort of hilarious that something they did for sport also had life or death connotations and was actually used in battle situations. And the importance of the ballgame is truly reflected in Mayan art by the thousands of effigy pieces that the people produced in honor of such a pinnacle aspect of their culture.

Caribbean art today is ALL about how Pre-Columbian art fused together with European art over time. Today we continue to see a lot of ancient spirit in Caribbean art, with the refined style that comes with European art. I think it's important to understand origins in a culture of art, especially for, say, an art student exploring her roots both known and unknown.

(90% of my family records have been lost, as my family came from Cuba as refugees, and the generations who could tell the stories all died by the time I was 8 years old. My last great aunt, Tia Isa, passed away this week after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. However, she married into my family via my Tio Raul, and helped me with what information she knew before she died. Everyone else in my family, from what my mother has told me, was very private about life before they came to the United States, as if they'd abandoned their heritage and started new as a family.)

To the Maya, as well as most other Meso-American cultures, the ballgame was held in sacred esteem. In fact, it was so sacred that it was even involved in their creation story, the Popol Vuh. The story begins with One Ahuapu, the first father, passing a cave where the gods of the underworld called out to him for a ball game. Upon descending into the underworld, he is attacked and beheaded, and his head is placed on a Calabash tree for show. A daughter of one of the underworld gods walked past the severed head and became pregnant with twins after he spat in her hand. She left the underworld and gave birth to twin boys, who later grow to challenge the gods of the underworld to a ball game in order to avenge their father. After they had won the game, the twins slay one of the gods and resurrected their father. On their journey back to the land, One Ahuapu discovered corn and takes an ear. Once home, the twins rose into the sky to become the sun and moon, but One Ahuapu remained at home as the maize god. From his ear of corn, the Mayan people were born. From this story arose three sacred Mayan motifs: twins, corn, and the ballgame.

Mayan art revolved around what they considered to be sacred motifs. An example of one of these pieces is The Ball Player Effigy, or a representation as a sculpture or monument, in the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk. The Ball Player is Mayan, found in Jaina, now Campeche, in Mexico and dates to the Late Classic Period. The figure is small, six to eight inches tall, and is made of terra cotta. The effigy piece was once painted; small remnants of the famous Maya Blue, a unique pigment, still show on the equipment of the ball player. The figure is a classic Mayan: he has a prominent nose and square-like jaw. On his head is an elaborate headdress with several rectangular shapes out of which come what looks like representations of feathers flaring out at all angles. Among these feather-like headdress pieces is a long flair that looks like a bird’s tail. On the left and right bone-like pieces protrude perpendicular to the body and the rest of the headdress. The figure has large ear-spools or earrings on, and what appears to be a low relief of snakes on face, which were most likely at one point painted. He carries a yoke on his right shoulder and has what looks like an indented dish, probably some sort of breastplate, hanging around his neck with his left arm tucked beneath it. His attire is consistent with that of a ball player; he wears a long loincloth over a skirt-like garment. However, he has no ankle equipment commonly used to protect the feet and kick the ball; his feet are bare. Most of the focus of the piece is on the ball player’s headdress, which makes up a good third of the figure. Because the player is missing some equipment, and is not wearing his equipment, but carrying it, it is likely that the effigy portrays a ball player either before or after a match.

This effigy most likely served as a ritual piece. For the Maya, the origin of the ballgame laid in the Popol Vuh, and therefore, the ballgame was mostly about overcoming or facing death. To them, the ball court was a place where life and death met in the game. Although this concept seems violent, ballgames more or less celebrated the Mayan creation story. Along with this, the ballgame could also be used as a form of settling dispute, as twins played, or as a form of sacrifice or ritual to the gods. Although the act of playing the ballgame was considered sacred, ritual art still arose to display what they considered to be sacred. Although the game was casually played, there is nothing casual about this figure due to his headdress. A casual game would not have involved something so elaborate or ritualistic. Because the piece is small, it could have been mobile; its intention was to be taken from one place to another, and it probably accompanied other pieces. Its size also indicates that it was a private piece, because a public piece would have demanded a much larger size and probably would be statuary. This piece could have been viewed by anyone involved in the ritual, or by a person of importance. Its detail is too concise and the figure is too well preserved to have been of everyday use. Because it was painted, and especially because it incorporated the Maya Blue, the making of the figure was an honor, and so the figure was probably considered to be precious if not sacred.

The Ball Player Effigy, like other effigies found from Jaina, such as Woman and Old Man Deity Effigy, was painted with a unique blue pigment known as the Maya Blue. This pigment was used for sacred pieces, like as a ritual piece to a god. The careful craftsmanship of the sculpture is delicate, especially because the piece is so small. Both the pigment and the detail indicate a sense of importance to the piece that would not be put in the hands of any artist but a master. The medium, terra cotta, is a usual everyday material for Meso-American art, so the process of painting and perfecting the piece was the honorable job, not the initial workshop where the terra cotta came from. The artist chose the motif of the ball player because of its clear-cut significance to Mayan society.

The ballgame was a pinnacle part of not only Mayan culture, but also Meso-American culture as a whole. The Ball Player Effigy is just a small example of how important it was to the Maya. Its detail and precision allude to its importance as a sacred work of art, and its value at the time. Figures like this one provide art historians with a history of the culture and its values and rituals. They also speak measures of the little-known capabilities of Pre-Columbian culture, especially through the Maya Blue, the small details, and the references to elaborate ritual garb. This piece characterizes the Maya as an athletic, artistic, and cultured people with a deep regard for ritual and their roots. 

The Chrysler Museum. 2011. <http://www.chrysler.org/>.