The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 26, 2024

Stela Fragment

Stela Fragment

600–950
Each: 31.8 x 30.8 x 12.2 cm (12 1/2 x 12 1/8 x 4 13/16 in.)

Did You Know?

The pointed teeth of the warrior are suggestive of dental modification, a practice known to have occurred from human remains.

Description

Figures appear on two sides of this fragmentary stela (upright stone slab carved in relief). One seems to represent a grimacing warrior who brandishes a club; arrow-like darts festoon his belt and hair. On the other side is a skeleton with one fleshed hand, perhaps a sacrificed captive. The eagle with a leaf in its mouth is a hieroglyph that may identify the captive's name.
  • ?-1959
    (Black Tulip Galleries, Inc., Dallas, TX, 1959, sold to James C. and Florence C. Gruener)
    1959-1959
    James C. [1903-1990] and Florence C. [1908-1982] Gruener, Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1959-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Lee, Sherman E. "Year in Review| 1960." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 47, no. 10 (1960): 223-54. www.jstor.org
    Prufer, Olaf H. "A Post-Classic Mexican Stele." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 49, no. 8 (1962): 191-95. p. 191-2 www.jstor.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art, “Mexican Limestone Stele Top,” October 17, 1962, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
    Prufer, Olaf H. "Die Kunst Des "Southern Cult" in Den östlichen Vereinigten Staaten." Paideuma 11 (1965): 68-90. Tafel II www.jstor.org
    Turner, Evan H. "The Year in Review for 1984." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 72, no. 2 (1985): 163-207. www.jstor.org
    Young-Sánchez, Margaret. "The Gruener Collection of Pre-Columbian Art." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 79, no. 7 (1992): 234-75. Mentioned: cat. no. 97. p. 273, Reproduced: fig. 97, p. 259 www.jstor.org
  • The Gruener Collection of Pre-Columbian Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 4-November 29, 1992).
    The Arts of Pre- Hispanic America. The Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA (organizer) (April 12-May 31, 1970).
    Year in Review - Nineteen Hundred Sixty. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 30, 1960-January 1, 1961).
  • {{cite web|title=Stela Fragment|url=false|author=|year=600–950|access-date=26 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1959.334