(elegant music)
- [Beth] We're here in the Maya Galleries
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
looking at a lintel of carved stone
that would have been the horizontal piece over a doorway.
- [James] The sculptor who carved this,
actually carved the underside of the lintel,
to be seen as you enter the temple or palace.
You would have to look up,
and the sculpture is carved in such low relief
that you probably would have had to
use a torchlight in order to make the figures appear.
- [Beth] This was not a building
that anyone could have walked through.
- [James] No, the Maya palaces
are very restricted in access,
by different patios and courtyards and staircases.
This would have been seen by
a very important group of individuals.
- [Beth] And it features a very important royal figure.
- [James] In the hieroglyphs above his head,
he's named as Chel Te' Chan K'inich,
otherwise known as Shield Jaguar IV.
The penultimate and last important ruler of
of a kingdom at Yaxchilan.
- [Beth] Here we are during the classic period,
and it's coming to a close.
- [James] Shield Jaguar IV
was the last ruler to erect a lot of monuments
in the area around Yaxchilan.
- [Beth] Here he is receiving important tribute,
from the leader of a subservient city state.
- [James] This lintel probably comes
from a site we know as La Pasadita,
which is across the river from Yaxchilan
in modern day Guatemala.
The central figure handing gifts to the king
is known as Tiloom, an important subsidiary Lord,
in the Yaxchilan kingdom.
- [Beth] In his left hand he is offering
a fabulous headdress decorated with
Quetzal feathers, with Jade, this very precious stone,
and in his right hand likely
some food or perhaps some incense.
- [James] These are typical gifts in scenes of tribute,
from these local Lords to their over Lords.
- [Beth] It looks to me as though Tiloom
is almost as well dressed as the king of Yaxchilan.
- [James] He's very important,
and that's made clear by the artist
in his central position in the composition,
but also in his posture and size.
He almost appears to be a little bit
larger than the ruler himself.
- [Beth] He's wearing a jade necklace
with this pectoral decorated with a head.
He's got on a fabulous headdress himself of kilt.
- [James] The garment that he's wearing
is very high quality,
and you see this in Yaxchilan courts,
that the most important people
wore this type of brocaded woven garment.
- [Beth] There's another figure behind him,
and we're not quite sure who this figure is.
- [James] He's not named in the hieroglyphic text,
but he holds a fan composed of Quetzal feathers.
He's also part of this tribute event.
- [Beth] This is such an unusual relief
because so much of the pigment survives
giving us a good idea of how brightly painted
these relief sculptures were.
- [James] The red orange pigment is iron based,
and the blue pigment is composed
of indigo dye, mixed with minerals.
- [Beth] That blueish green was an important color,
just like jade was an important stone for the Maya.
- [James] Blue green was associated with jade,
but also with water, and with agricultural fertility.
- [Beth] The stuff of life.
- [James] The stuff of life.
- [Beth] I'm struck by how naturalistically
Shield Jaguar IV is represented.
He's seated in a cross legged position.
He leans forward.
It seems almost as if we can hear him speaking.
- [James] Yeah, he's leaning forward.
He's probably addressing,
or thanking the party in front of him
for the gifts that they are bringing.
- [Beth] And below his throne we see
a basket with some seeded fruit.
Also likely part of the offering.
- [James] We often see Maya Lords
surrounding themselves with tribute goods
that often included foods like fruit
or beans, even alcoholic beverages.
- [Beth] There's something else that
makes this particular carving so special,
and that's that we know the name of the artist.
- [James] The only culture in the ancient Americas
in which artists signed their works was the classic Maya,
and this particular lintel was signed by its sculptor.
His name was Chakalte' and he made at least
three or four monuments during the reigns
of Bird Jaguar IV, and Shield Jaguar IV at Yaxchilan.
- [Beth] We get a sense of how important
artists were at the Maya court.
- [James] Absolutely, and the hypothesis would be that
Shield Jaguar sent Chakalte'
across the river to La Pasadita
to have Tiloom project himself
onto the lintel of a building they were constructing.
- [Beth] Let's talk for one moment
about Shield Jaguar IV.
He's wearing this beaded necklace,
but also a nose ornament.
- [James] The large necklace that he's wearing
is known as a bar pectoral,
which is a horizontal long tubular bead made of jade,
and the nose ring is also probably a jade tube
that is attached to the septum of the king.
- [Beth] We also see that he's wearing bracelets.
He's heavily adorned.
- [James] He is heavily adorned in jade
and Quetzal feathers which all share
this blue green precious color,
but a detail that is unusual to this lintel
is that the throne itself is decorated
with a lot of what look to be representations
of jade beads and pendants.
(elegant music)