Photo Credit: © Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC. Photography by Neil Greentree.
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Description
This travertine tripod vessel has straight, flaring walls and a thicker, slightly undulating rim. The tripod supports are short (less than 2 cm); one is circular, whereas the other two have a straight surface facing the lower edge of the container. This peculiarity most likely resulted from correcting the position of the supports; otherwise, part of their circumference would have been flush with the walls of the vessel. The correction allowed the supports to remain underneath the container. The walls of the vessel are thin, which gives the jar considerable translucency. Such a property demonstrates both the natural horizontal layering of travertine as well as the human-made vertical streaks generated by the hollowing out of the interior through the use of tubular hollow drill bits. The vessel was thoroughly ground, smoothed, and finished.
Bibliography
Benson, Elizabeth P. 1963 Handbook of the Robert Woods Bliss Collection of Pre-Columbian Art. Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University, Washington, D.C., p. 28, cat. 141.
Bliss, Robert Woods 1947 Indigenous Art of the Americas: Collection of Robert Woods Bliss. National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., p. 21, 102, cat. 97.
Bliss, Robert Woods 1957 Pre-Columbian Art: The Robert Woods Bliss Collection. Text and Critical Analyses by S. K. Lothrop, Joy Mahler and William F. Foshag. Phaidon, New York. p. 246, cat. 75, pl. LII.
Bliss, Robert Woods 1959 Pre-Columbian Art: The Robert Woods Bliss Collection. 2nd ed. Text and Critical Analyses by S. K. Lothrop, Joy Mahler and William F. Foshag. Phaidon, London. p. 254, cat. 75, pl. LII.
Exhibition History
"Indigenous Art of the Americas", National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, April 1947 to May 1948; February 1954 to July 1962.
"Carved in Stone: Hardstone Objects from the Collection of Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss," Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, 7/15/2010 - 1/15/2011.
Acquisition History
Purchased from Earl Stendahl, Los Angeles (dealer), by Robert Woods Bliss before 1947.
Robert Woods Bliss Collection of Pre-Columbian Art, Washington, DC, 1947-1962.
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Pre-Columbian Collection, Washington, DC.
