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Plate
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Its pose and jewelry suggest this flamboyantly painted figure may represent a human clad in the skin of a jaguar. Because the jaguar is the largest, most powerful predator in Mesoamerica, it was a natural metaphor for earthly and supernatural power alike.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit linePlate, c. 800. Mexico, Campeche, Maya. Earthenware with colored slips; overall: 6.5 x 41.5 cm (2 9/16 x 16 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James C. Gruener, 1990.182
