This is an unique and very beautifully drawn portrait of an artist with his brush poised over an open codex in the act of painting. During the Classic period of the Mayan culture, the artist/scribe was considered to be the embodiment of refinement and education. The artist is depicted here seated cross-legged, and wearing a kilt and an elaborate headdress of feathers of the quetzal. A Codex was a Mayan book, made from paper formed by pounding the bark of the fig tree (called amate). The paper pages were folded, accordion-style, and bound in wood.The most valued were then covered in the fur of the jaguar or leopard. When the Spanish encountered the Maya, they proceeded to burn every codex they could find. The Spanish believed that the books contained magical incantations to the devil and were full of pagan beliefs, so decided to eradicate them. All but 4 codices were destroyed, and a wealth of knowledge of the Maya culture disappeared into smoke. The remaining codices, now housed in museums around the world, including the famous Dresden codex, are filled with astronomical observations and histories of the ruling lineages of various cities. Unfortunately, we don't know just what was lost, but we can assume that their mythic texts, equivalent to what the Greeks had with Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, would have been among the lost literature.
The artist/scribe held a position of high rank in the Mayan culture, and it was not uncommon for sons of a ruler who were not in line to succeed the throne to become artist/scribes. On many Mayan ceramic vessels, the scribe is depicted as a rabbit/scribe, dutifully transcribing the action shown on the vessel onto a codex.
Mayan polychrome plate with image of a scribe writing on a codex, Earthenware
Classic period, 672-830 CE, from Nakbé, Guatemala
