Ask the Scholar

{
    "localId": "155455",
    "label": "Painted Vase with Ruler and Scribe",
    "core": "obj",
    "dtoType": "object"
}

{
    "id": "155455",
    "contentType": "object",
    "title": "Painted Vase with Ruler and Scribe",
    "description": "Among Maya noble families, finely painted ceramic vessels were used as fancy tableware, treasured gifts that secured the support of allies, and funerary offerings placed in tombs. Accordingly, the vessels’ imagery varies from religious themes to scenes of courtly life. Here, two attendants kneel before an enthroned nobleman who wears an enormous bird-head headdress.",
    "date": "600–900",
    "citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1990.181",
    "rights": "CC0",
    "rightsUri": "CC0",
    "language": "en",
    "wikidata": [
        "Q60761318"
    ],
    "genreSpecific": [
        "Ceramic"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1990.181/1990.181_web.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1990.181/1990.181_web.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1990.181/1990.181_web.jpg",
    "imageCount": 1,
    "source": "import",
    "dimensionsRaw": "Overall: 24.5 x 10.5 cm (9 5/8 x 4 1/8 in.)",
    "cul": [
        "Guatemala, Northern Peten or Mexico, Southern Campeche, Maya, late Classic"
    ],
    "accession": "1990.181"
}

{
    "tec": "pottery with burnished, colored slips",
    "tombstone": "Painted Vase with Ruler and Scribe, 600–900. Guatemala, Northern Peten or Mexico, Southern Campeche, Maya, late Classic. Pottery with burnished, colored slips; overall: 24.5 x 10.5 cm (9 5/8 x 4 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James C. Gruener, 1990.181",
    "collection": "AA - Mesoamerica",
    "didYouKnow": "A string of death glyphs below the rim departs from the Primary Standard Sequence.",
    "citations": [
        {
            "citation": "Coe, Michael D. The Maya Scribe and His World. 1973.",
            "page_number": "pp. 104-105"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Young-Sánchez, Margaret. \"The Gruener Collection of Pre-Columbian Art.\" <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 79, no. 7 (1992): 234-75.",
            "page_number": "Referenced: cat. no. 89, p. 272, Reproduced: fig. 89, pg. 255",
            "url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25161367."
        }
    ],
    "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1990.181",
    "creditline": "Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James C. Gruener",
    "updatedAt": "2026-05-29 08:02:40.810000",
    "imageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1990.181/1990.181_print.jpg",
    "sourceId": 155455,
    "dept": "Art of the Americas",
    "coll": "AA - Mesoamerica",
    "med": "pottery with burnished, colored slips",
    "thumbnail_url": null,
    "image_url": null
}

{
    "seq": 1,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1990.181/1990.181_web.jpg",
    "mediaId": "77a8a29b9e94e763"
}