ART 198 - HISTORY OF WORLD CERAMICS

Spider monkeys hang from vines that twist and grow up the sides of this bowl and in the frieze just below the rim, three dimensional faces of dead spider monkeys form a pattern where the PSS usually is painted. Note the holes in the mouths of these monkey faces, to allow air to escape from these hollows during the firing process. This piece is very unusual in Maya ceramics because it is not polychrome slip painted, but rather simply burnished and pit fired, with the black color resulting from the smoke of the fire. Monkeys represent the god's first (and failed) attempt to create Man. The gods tried to create man from wood, but the creatures failed to obey, so the gods turned these wooden creatures into monkeys, doomed to forever chatter away in the trees. In the gods successful second attempt, clay was used to make humans.

Maya Bowl with three dimensional Spider Monkeys, Classic Maya Period, 600-800 CE