Royal visions; art of the Maya courts

Art in America, Dec, 2004 by Anna Blume

While the artifacts from Palenque, including recent spectacular findings on loan from Mexico, will no doubt impress specialists who have studied this site for decades, it is three carved limestone lintels from the lesser known site of Yaxchilan that may produce the most lasting effect on those who are seeing the ancient Maya for the first time. These repeatedly depict the commanding Lady Xok, who, along with her husband Shield Jaguar, ruled Yaxchilan between 681 and 742. The three separate reliefs were made for the structure in which Lady Xok's remains are thought to be buried; together, they make her one of the most prominently represented of historical women in ancient Maya art. This is the first time all three Lady Xok lintels have been seen together since they were dispersed from their site, which fell in the early 9th century, a clear testament of the vision and diplomatic skills of the exhibition's curators. (2) Read together the lintels demonstrate the complex rituals of this court, especially those enacted by the king and his principal wife. The hieroglyphic texts name the figures, artists and dates of commemorated events.

The relief on Lintel 25 depicts Lady Xok kneeling at the feet of her husband, who holds a burning torch. She draws a cord with sharp thorns through her tongue; low-relief scrolls representing blood mark her face, and blood falls onto a piece of bark paper beneath her. Shield Jaguar has the shrunken head of a sacrificial victim attached to his hair, tied back like that of the Maize God. He holds a full-length torch to spotlight Lady Xok in the process of bloodletting, whose violence he will match with the ritual perforation of his penis. Other adornments on the rulers' bodies include depictions of broad jade bracelets and elaborate earrings (earflares), along with finely woven and patterned textiles. Ancient Maya weaving on a backstrap loom was done much as it is today by the contemporary Maya of Chiapas and Highland Guatemala, and, like their spoken language, provides a continuity over 3,000 years. On Lintel 24, Shield Jaguar wears a cape and hip cloth with quatrefoil forms associated with the mouths of caves and the powers of the underworld. His cape is woven so finely that it clings to his body, while his hip cloth appears to be much thicker. Such subtleties in execution attest to the range of Maya expertise in weaving as well as to their ability to convey minute details in stone carving. Lady Xok wears a long robe patterned with star and sky symbols fringed with delicate pearls.

On Lintel 25 we find Lady Xok experiencing a vision. (In addition to bloodletting, which in itself was performed to alter consciousness, Lady Xok might have enhanced her experience by imbibing raw alcohol or a hallucinogenic substance drawn from a toad.) She is alone this time, wearing a garment patterned in quatrefoil motifs of the underworld. In her hand and at her feet are baskets containing the tongue cord and bloodied paper; the latter is burned, releasing a curl of smoke out of which her vision emanates--a vision born out of her sacrifice. Before her is a great double-headed Vision Serpent (a common motif in Maya iconography) that crosses behind her right wrist. Peering from the upper mouth of the serpent is a warrior, his lance poised to strike Lady Xok, and from its lower mouth an elaborate warrior's headdress emerges, replete with symbols. Lady Xok has induced this ecstasy, calling forth otherworldly beings, in order to enhance the supernatural and terrestrial powers of Shield Jaguar and his progeny (as represented by Lady Xok, who bears them). In the last of the three panels, Lintel 26, the most weathered of them, Lady Xok, wearing a garment patterned with toad motifs, stands equal to her husband, dressed in cotton and feathered armor; she hands him his lily jaguar mask, which he will wear for power and protection in battle. Yet it is the representation