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https://piction.clevelandart.org/cma/ump.di?e=7B70422412778A3951BA92AF9ADC447F785B0CD485AE699BBCE73DE4B7815EEC&s=24247294&se=51912658&v=0&f=1950.161_o2.jpg

https://piction.clevelandart.org/cma/ump.di?e=6461E3ACB189C318271FBBCAC21CF0BED4B44AECC36F312F96A604A89E05B10F&s=24247294&se=51912658&v=1&f=%5C1950.161det01_o2.jpg

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Sep 3, 2010

Eccentric Flint

600–900

Guatemala, Quirigua, Maya style

(250-900)

Chipped flint

Overall: 34.6 x 19.3 cm (13 5/8 x 7 5/8 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 1950.161

Location

233 Mesoamerican and Intermediate Region

Description

Named for their unusual shapes, eccentric flints often have intricately silhouetted figures like this. At the forehead of the main profile face is a smoking torch, the insignia of a deity closely linked to rulers and known today as K’awil. Smaller faces appear on three protrusions. Some flints may have served as scepters; they also were buried as offerings beneath buildings and sculptures.

Provenance

-1936

Don F. Dickson

1936-1948

Brummer Gallery, New York, NY, sold to Simkhovitch

1948-

Vladimir Gregorievitch Simkhovitch (1874-1959), New York, NY

-1950

John Wise, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art

1950-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Cleveland Museum of Art Picture Book 231

Whitaker, Irwin. Crafts and Craftsmen. Dubuque, Iowa: W.C. Brown, 1967.

International Congress of Americanists, Rudolf Grossmann, and Gustav Wilhelm Otto Antze. Verhandlung des XXIV. Internationalen amerikanistenkongresses, Hamburg, 7. bis 13. september 1930. Nendeln/Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1968.

The Brummer Gallery Records. Cloisters (Museum), n.d. N3872 libmma.contentdm.oclc.org

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. An Exhibition of Pre-Columbian Art. Cambridge, Mass: William Hayes Fogg art museum, Harvard University, 1940. cat. no.5, p. 17

Kelemen, Pál. Medieval American Art: A Survey in Two Volumes. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1943. p. 21, pl. 256d

Morley, Sylvanus Griswold. The Ancient Maya. Stanford Cal: Stanford University Press, 1946. p. 440

Foote, H. (1951). Four Pre-Columbian Ornaments. The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 38(3). pp. 58, 62-3 www.jstor.org

"Art and Archeology at The Cleveland Museum of Art." Archaeology. (Winter, 1953.). p. 202

Covarrubias, Miguel. Indian Art of Mexico and Central America. New York: Knopf, 1957. pl. LIII (Left)

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 373 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 294 archive.org

Alsop, Joseph. "Treasures of the Cleveland Museum of Art." Art In America. (May - June 1966). p. 76

Cleveland Museum of Art. Selected Works: Cleveland Museum of Art. 1967. p. 294

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 294 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 398 archive.org

Robicsek, Francis. The Smoking Gods: Tobacco in Maya Art, History, and Religion. 1978. p. 76, fig. 79D

Schele, Linda, Mary Ellen Miller, and Justin Kerr. The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art. New York: G. Braziller, 1986. Pl. 25, pp. 78, 83, 101

Lucena Salmoral, Manuel. América 1492: retrato de un continente hace quinientos años. Madrid: Anaya, 1990. p. 216

Fasquelle, Ricardo Agurica. Mayan Artistry Unearthed. National Geographic Magazine. (September, 1991). p. 102

Palenque Round Table, Merle Greene Robertson, Martha J. Macri, and Jan McHargue. Eighth Palenque Round Table, 1993. San Francisco: Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, 1996.

Bradburne, James M., Annette Weber, and James Clifton. Blut: Kunst, Macht, Politik, Pathologie. München: Prestel, 2001. fig. 5

Keoke, Emory Dean, and Kay Marie Porterfield. Encyclopedia of American Indian Contributions to the World: 15,000 Years of Inventions and Innovations. New York, NY: Facts on File, 2002. p. 109

Bradburne, James M., and James Clifton. Blood: art, power, politics, and pathology. Munich: Prestel, 2002. p. 44, fig. 5

Summers, David. Real Spaces: World Art History and the Rise of Western Modernism. London: Phaidon Press, 2003.

Miller, Mary Ellen, and Megan Eileen O'Neil. Maya art and architecture. 2014. p. 83, pl. 197, 221

Biro, Yaëlle, Christine E. Brennan, and Christel H. Force. The Brummer Galleries, Paris and New York: Defining Taste from Antiquities to the Avant-Garde. Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2023. Mentioned: p. 306; Reproduced: p. 310, fig. 6.9

Exhibition history

An Exhibition of Pre- Columbian Art. The Peabody Museum, Cambridge, MA and the William Hayes Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University (January 15- February 10, 1940).

The Blood of Kings: A New Interpretation of Maya Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 8-December 14, 1986); The Kimbell Museum of Art, Fort Worth, TX (May 17-August 14, 1986).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Eccentric Flint|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1950.161|year=600–900|access-date=30 November 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Eccentric Flint

Eccentric Flint

Guatemala, Quirigua, Maya style

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