Cleveland Museum of Art

Tripod Bowl

Date

600–1000

Medium

marble

Culture

Honduras, Ulúa Valley, 7th-10th century

Department

Art of the Americas

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Between about 600 and 800, white marble vessels carved in dense relief on their outer surfaces were a form of luxury and wealth in the Ulúa region of Honduras. Two confronting profile zoomorphic heads occur on each side of this example, between three-dimensional handles shaped as bat heads. Originally the vessel may have been covered with stucco and brightly painted. One of two vessels that were the first ancient American artworks collected by James and Florence Gruener.

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