Unknown Maya artist, Possibly Jaina Island, Campeche region, Mexico. Jaina-Style Figure of a Standing Ballplayer, 600–900 CE. Ceramic with pigment applied after firing, 9 x 3 x 2 ¾ inches. Denver Art Museum Collection: Gift of Mr. William I. Lee, 1986.617.

height: 9 in, 22.8600 cm; width: 3 in, 7.6200 cm; depth: 2 3/4 in, 6.9850 cm

Mayer Center, Arts of the Ancient Americas

Arts of the Ancient Americas

This object is currently on view

Jaina-style Figure of a Standing Ballplayer
Maya
About A.D. 600-900
Earthenware with traces of paint
Mexico, Campeche, possibly Jaina Island
Gift of Mr. William I. Lee, 1986.617

This Jaina-style figurine shows a ballplayer at rest, either before or after participating in the game. He is naked with the exception of a short, wrapped kilt or hipcloth with a loincloth flap hanging to the front and back. Over his proper left shoulder, atop a narrow strip of cloth, he has slung his ballplaying yoke, a u-shaped padded belt used to protect the lower abdomen during play (for a stone version of a yoke, see 1991.500). The round element affixed to his proper right shoulder appears to be the single remaining piece of a large shell necklace (the indentation from a second shell is visible in the center of his chest). His hair has been cropped back, revealing a high forehead and forelock of hair. He wears a wrapped turban, bound with straps and decorated with two tassels. With his proper left hand he holds the edge of the yoke. His proper right hand is held forward, palm outward. The meaning of this gesture is unknown.

The ballgame was a ritualized sport replete with metaphorical allusions to solar and agricultural cycles. In the Classic Maya world, the ballgame was most frequently played in an I-shaped court, with a central playing alley and two end zones. Ring-shaped markers were sometimes placed along the slanted walls of the central alley, and additional circular markers were often inset into the ground. Players wearing heavily padded clothing hit the ball with their body, arms, legs, and hips. In this version of the game, it appears to have been illegal to strike the ball with one's feet or hands. The ballgame was a key aspect of ceremonial and religious life throughout Mesoamerica. Victory ensured that the earth's cycles would continue: agricultural crops would flourish each year and the sun would rise each day.

For more Jaina-style ballplayers, see 1986.615, 1986.621, 1986.622A-B, and 1985.635. For ballgame scenes, see 1971.417, 1980.237, and 1984.616.

-Lucia R. Henderson, 2016

Gifted 31 December 1986 by Mr. William I. Lee to the Denver Art Museum. Provenance research is on-going at the Denver Art Museum. Please e-mail provenance@denverartmuseum.org, if you have questions, or if you have additional information to share with us.

• "The Ballgame"-- Denver Museum of Natural History, 3/17/1995-7/1995