Tajin / Ballgame Yoke / 9th century

Tajin
Ballgame Yoke
9th century - 12th century
View Larger Image

View Full Catalog Record Below

This image is one of over 108,000 from the AMICA Library (formerly The Art Museum Image Consortium Library- The AMICO Library™), a growing online collection of high-quality, digital art images from over 20 museums around the world. www.davidrumsey.com/amica offers subscriptions to this collection, the finest art image database available on the internet. EVERY image has full curatorial text and can be studied in depth by zooming into the smallest details from within the Image Workspace.

Preview the AMICA Library™ Public Collection in Luna Browser Now

Cultures and time periods represented range from contemporary art, to ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian works.
Types of works include paintings, drawings, watercolors, sculptures, costumes, jewelry, furniture, prints, photographs, textiles, decorative art, books and manuscripts.

Gain access to this incredible resource through either a monthly or a yearly subscription and search the entire collection from your desktop, compare multiple images side by side and zoom into the minute details of the images. Visit www.davidrumsey.com/amica for more information on the collection, click on the link below the revolving thumbnail to the right, or email us at amica@luna-img.com .

Creator Name: Tajin
Creator Nationality: North American; Central American; Mexican
Creator Role: Sculptor
Creator Name-CRT: Tajin
Title: Ballgame Yoke
View: front
Creation Start Date: 800
Creation End Date: 1199
Creation Date: 9th century - 12th century
Creation Place: Veracruz
Object Type: Sculpture
Classification Term: Stone
Materials and Techniques: polished stone
Dimensions: L.16-3/8 x W.13-5/8 in.
AMICA Contributor: The Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Owner Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
ID Number: 41.72
Credit Line: The Ethel Morrison Van Derlip Fund
Rights: http://www.artsmia.org/restrictions.html
Context:

Players of the Mesoamerican ball game are often shown wearing U-shaped pads or "bumpers" low on the waist as protection from the large, dense ball. Stone yokes are replicas of the wood and fiber protectors used in play. The complex images they bear emphasize their importance to ceremonies associated with the game. Small, blade-shaped stone pieces call hacha, carved to suggest human and animal heads, were attached to ceremonial yokes and may have served as markers on the ball court.

This yoke depicts a crouching man peering from the jaws of a felinelike creature, often interpreted as guardian of the entrance to the underworld. A player wearing such a yoke thus stood poised between life and death, his fate determined by the game and the cosmic forces he represents. A human face, eyes closed as in death, appears at each end of the yoke.

AMICA ID: MIA_.41.72
Component Measured: overall
Measurement Unit: in
AMICA Library Year: 1999
Media Metadata Rights: ?The Minneapolis Institute of Arts

AMICA PUBLIC RIGHTS: a) Access to the materials is granted for personal and non-commercial use. b) A full educational license for non-commercial use is available from Cartography Associates at www.davidrumsey.com/amica/institution_subscribe.html c) Licensed users may continue their examination of additional materials provided by Cartography Associates, and d) commercial rights are available from the rights holder.