Maya. <em>Maize God Emerging from a Flower</em>, 600–900. Ceramic, pigment, 8 1/4 x 2 1/8 x 1 11/16 in. (21 x 5.4 x 4.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 70.31. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 70.31_overall_PS11.jpg)

Maya. Maize God Emerging from a Flower, 600–900. Ceramic, pigment, 8 1/4 x 2 1/8 x 1 11/16 in. (21 x 5.4 x 4.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 70.31. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 70.31_overall_PS11.jpg)

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What can you tell me about this art?

This figure comes from the Campeche coast of Mexico (along the Gulf!) and shows a male figure inside a water lily. It was likely found in a cemetery. It would have been made by hand and painted. Some of the colors are still present.

If you look closely, there's a particularly special blue color that the artist used. It's a shade of Mayan blue, a type of blue pigment used by the Classic Mayan cultures that people only learned how to replicate recently. It was quite a mystery for scholars!

Does the color represent anything?

It does! Blue was associated with sacrifice in Mayan cultures at the time. It had connotations of healing and rebirth, as well.

Any research on why water lilies are consistently funerary in many cultures?

I know that in ancient Egypt it was related to rebirth, taken from the visual of beautiful flowers growing out of the mud. In Mayan art the waterlily is also associated with the afterlife, and with living on in another realm, Xibalba, after death here on earth. In both cases the plant metaphor, relating to regrowth or rebirth, is the central reason why the symbol is used.

Maize God Emerging from a Flower

Arts of the Americas

On View: American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, To Give Flowers

About this Brooklyn Icon
The Brooklyn Museum is commemorating its 200th anniversary by spotlighting 200 standout objects in its encyclopedic collection.

Venerated across the Maya region—a vast territory that includes the present-day countries of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras—the Maize God is often depicted as a metaphor for new growth and regeneration. He also symbolizes agricultural fertility and abundance.

As seen in this delicate ceramic object, the Maize God is identified by an elongated head, reminiscent of an ear of corn, and the idealized features of a beautiful young man. He wears a beaded necklace and ear spools, ornaments that were made of jade, a precious stone associated with the living maize plant. In Maya creation stories, the Maize God dies, descends into the underworld, and is reborn—a metaphor for the corn seed that emerges with new life from the ground.

Also according to the Maya worldview, ancestors and deities reside on Flower Mountain, a paradise full of music and beautiful, fragrant flowers. Made during the Late Classic Period, this work doubles as a whistle that was likely played during special ceremonies. It reflects the concepts of flowers as homes for divine beings and music as a means to bring these beings to life.

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Gallery Label

In this ceramic figurine, the young Maize God emerges from a flower. He is identified by an elongated head, reminiscent of an ear of corn, and idealized facial features. He wears a beaded necklace, ear spools, and a headdress, indicating this high status. When the Maize God dies, he descends into the underworld and is reborn—a metaphor for the seed of corn that emerges with new life from the ground. He was a symbol of agricultural fertility, abundance, and renewal. According to Maya worldview, ancestors and deities reside in Flower Mountain, a paradise full of music and beautiful, fragrant flowers. This object reflects the concepts of flowers as homes for divine beings and music as a means to bring these beings to life.

—Diana Cristina Rose, Mayan descent, independent scholar of pre-Hispanic and contemporary Maya art

CULTURE Maya

MEDIUM Ceramic, pigment

Place Found: Campeche, Mexico

DATES 600–900

PERIOD Late Classic Period

DIMENSIONS 8 1/4 x 2 1/8 x 1 11/16 in. (21 x 5.4 x 4.3 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Arts of the Americas

ACCESSION NUMBER 70.31

CREDIT LINE Dick S. Ramsay Fund

PROVENANCE Prior to 1970, provenance not yet documented; by January, 1970, acquired by Alphonse Jax of New York, NY; April 15, 1970, purchased from Alphonse Jax by the Brooklyn Museum.

Provenance FAQ

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION The delicately modeled ceramic figurine is Jaina in style and reveals the upper part of a figure emerging from a flower. The figure is red with ornaments (necklace, earrings, and headdress) in cream color. The tip of the headdress is blue. There are other trace amounts of blue on the stem and petals of the flower. The figure's arms are folded across the waist. The flower, possibly a water lily has three pointed petals: one is in the front-center section, turned downward, exposing the inside texture of the flower that is handled with an application of clay dots; a second stands upward in the back, enveloping the figure; and a third stands upward on the proper left side of the lily. Because the water lily is associated with the Underworld in Maya cosmology, this figurine may symbolize the renewal of life after death. Condition; good; there are two repaired breaks in the stem and two repaired breaks in the headdress. There are also two broken edges at the proper right side of the blue central portion of the headdress, probably where two appliquéd segments had been attached.

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, To Give Flowers

CAPTION Maya. Maize God Emerging from a Flower, 600–900. Ceramic, pigment, 8 1/4 x 2 1/8 x 1 11/16 in. (21 x 5.4 x 4.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 70.31. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 70.31_overall_PS11.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 70.31_overall_PS11.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2022

"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.

RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY

You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.

RECORD COMPLETENESS

Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.

Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

What can you tell me about this art?

Does the color represent anything?

It does! Blue was associated with sacrifice in Mayan cultures at the time. It had connotations of healing and rebirth, as well.

Any research on why water lilies are consistently funerary in many cultures?