Provenance Information

Acquired by private collector, Connecticut, between 1962-1968; sold by private collector at Sotheby’s, New York, May 14, 1996, lot 176. Sold, Sotheby’s, New York, May 11, 2012, lot 52, to Candace P. Humphreys and W. Michael Humphreys, San Antonio; unsold, Sotheby’s, New York, May 13, 2019, lot 128; Candace P. Humphreys and W. Michael Humphreys, by gift to San Antonio Museum of Art, 2024.

Exhibition Information

N/A

Publication Information

N/A

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Informed judgement that works were outside of the country of modern discovery before 1970

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Previous sale catalogue and a letter on file from a previous owner attest that the work was first purchased between 1962-1968.

Provenance Information

Ex coll. Laurence (1926-1995) and Cora (1931-2023) Witten, United States, acquired ca. 1960-1985.

Exhibition Information

Human Body: Human Spirit, Michael C. Carlos Museum, September 15, 1993 - January 30, 1994
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, May 17, 1994 - 2001
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 13, 2002 - June 2012
'For I am the Black Jaguar': Shamanic Visionary Experience in Ancient American Art, Michael C. Carlos Museum, September 5, 2012 - January 5, 2013
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, February 9, 2013 - Present

Publication Information

Carolyn Elaine Tate and Beatriz de la Fuente, Human Body, Human Spirit: A Portrait of Ancient Mexico (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 1993), 15.
Michael C. Carlos Museum Handbook (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 1996), 93.
Rebecca Stone-Miller, Seeing With New Eyes: Highlights of the Michael C. Carlos Museum Collection of Art of the Ancient Americas (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2002), 3, figure. 1.
Karen M. O'Day, "A Study of Painted Pottery from Sitio Conte Cemetery, Panama," PhD. diss., Emory University, 2002, figure 5.27.
Rebecca Stone-Miller, "Human-Animal Imagery, Shamanic Visions, and Ancient American Aesthetics," RES (Spring 2004): 52, figure 5.
Augustin Segui, "Piernas flexionadas como jaguar," in XXXI Congresso Internacional de Americanistica: Imaginario e memoria: da representacao, ed. Edmundo Antonio Peggion et al. (Perugia:Universita degli Studi di Perugia, 2009), 233-41.
Michael C. Carlos Museum: Highlights of the Collections (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2011), 86.
Rebecca Stone, The Jaguar Within: Shamanic Trance in Ancient Central and South American Art (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011), 63-64, figures 3.1 - 3.3.

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Gift or bequest expected or on loan prior to 2008

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Gifted to museum in 1992.

Provenance Information

Oppenheimer Family, San Antonio, Texas, before 1998 (note 1); John and Kathi Oppenheimer by gift to San Antonio Museum of Art, 2023.
Note 1: This object appears in a photograph of the Oppenheimer collection dated to 1998. It was likely acquired well before the photograph was made, as many objects in the Oppenheimer collection were acquired before 1980.

Exhibition Information

N/A

Publication Information

N/A

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Gift or bequest expected or on loan prior to 2008

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

San Antonio Museum of Art staff began working with and exhibiting objects from the Oppenheimer collection on loan by 1998, a relationship that culminated in the donation of the collection to the museum in 2023. Documents presented to the museum prior to the donation indicate that Herbert Oppenheimer (1911-1989) was active in Mesoamerican art collecting by 1960; documentation also shows that his son, John Oppenheimer, was actively collecting by 1968.

Provenance Information

Oppenheimer Family, San Antonio, Texas, before 1980 (Note 1); John and Kathi Oppenheimer by gift to San Antonio Museum of Art, 2023.
Note 1: This object appears in a photograph of the Oppenheimer collection printed in November 1980 (date appears on the reverse of the photograph).

Exhibition Information

N/A

Publication Information

N/A

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Gift or bequest expected or on loan prior to 2008

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

San Antonio Museum of Art staff began working with and exhibiting objects from the Oppenheimer collection on loan by 1998, a relationship that culminated in the donation of the collection to the museum in 2023. Documents presented to the museum prior to the donation indicate that Herbert Oppenheimer (1911-1989) was active in Mesoamerican art collecting by 1960; documentation also shows that his son, John Oppenheimer, was actively collecting by 1968. This artwork appears in a photograph of the Oppenheimer collection dated to 1980, the earliest photographs of the collection in the museum’s possession.

Provenance Information

Oppenheimer Family, San Antonio, Texas, before 1998 (note 1); on loan by John and Kathi Oppenheimer to San Antonio Museum of Art; 1998-2013; John and Kathi Oppenheimer by gift to San Antonio Museum of Art, 2023.
Note 1: This object appears in a photograph of the Oppenheimer collection dated to 1998. It was likely acquired well before the photograph was made, as many objects in the Oppenheimer collection were acquired before 1980.

Exhibition Information

On loan by John and Kathi Oppenheimer to San Antonio Museum of Art; 1998-2013.

Publication Information

Line drawing by Persis Clarkson published by Foundation for Latin American Anthropological Research, FLAAR Photo Archive, 1976.
Michael McBride, "X-Ray Toads and 'The Enema Pot': A Maya Vase in the San Antonio Museum of Art," Human Mosaic 33 (2003): 15-23.
Bryan R. Just, Dancing Into Dreams: Maya Vase Painting of the Ik' Kingdom (Princeton: Princeton University Art Museum; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), 185-189, figs. 132, 133, 134.
Alexandre Tokovinine and Mark Zender, "Lords of Windy Water: The Royal Court of Motul de San José in Classic Maya Inscriptions," in Motul de San José: Politics, History, and Economy in a Maya Polity, ed. Antonia E. Foias and Kitty F. Emery (Gainesville: University Press of Florida), 2012. pp. 39, 61.
Dorie Reents-Budet, Stanley Guenter, Ronald L. Bishop, and M. James Blackman, "Identity and Interaction: Ceramic Styles and Social History of the Ik' Polity, Guatemala," in Motul de San José: Politics, History, and Economy in a Maya Polity, ed. Antonia E. Foias and Kitty F. Emery (Gainesville: University Press of Florida), 2012. pp. 70, 78, 85, 91.
Christina T. Halperin and Antonia E. Foias, "Motul de San José Palace Pottery Production: Reconstructions from Wasters and Debris," in Motul de San José: in Motul de San José: Politics, History, and Economy in a Maya Polity, ed. Antonia E. Foias and Kitty F. Emery (Gainesville: University Press of Florida), 2012. p. 181.
Erik Velásquez García, « Algunas reflexiones sobre la representación del tiempo en la imaginería maya antigua », Journal de la Société des américanistes [En ligne], Maya times | 2017, mis en ligne le 31 décembre 2017, consulté le 22 janvier 2024.
Matthew Looper, "A Vase for K'inich Lamaw Ek' of Motul de San José in the de Young Museum," Glyph Dwellers Report 90 (May 2024): fig. 3.
Charles Cheek, "Hats and Titles: Maya courtier dress and hierarchy in the late Classic Maya court," Ancient Mesoamerica (2024): 1 -23. Table 6.

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Gift or bequest expected or on loan prior to 2008

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

This work was exhibited as a loan to the San Antonio Museum of Art prior to its donation to the permanent collection. SAMA staff first began working with and exhibiting objects from the Oppenheimer collection by 1998, a relationship that culminated in the donation of the collection to the museum in 2023. Documents presented to the museum prior to the donation indicate that Herbert Oppenheimer (1911-1989) was active in Mesoamerican art collecting by 1960; documentation also shows that his son, John Oppenheimer, was actively collecting by 1968.

Provenance Information

Oppenheimer Family, San Antonio, Texas, before 1998 (note 1); John and Kathi Oppenheimer by gift to San Antonio Museum of Art, 2023.
Note 1: This object appears in a photograph of the Oppenheimer collection dated to 1998. It was likely acquired well before the photograph was made, as many objects in the Oppenheimer collection were acquired before 1980.

Exhibition Information

N/A

Publication Information

N/A

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Gift or bequest expected or on loan prior to 2008

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

San Antonio Museum of Art staff began working with and exhibiting objects from the Oppenheimer collection on loan by 1998, a relationship that culminated in the donation of the collection to the museum in 2023. Documents presented to the museum prior to the donation indicate that Herbert Oppenheimer (1911-1989) was active in Mesoamerican art collecting by 1960; documentation also shows that his son, John Oppenheimer, was actively collecting by 1968.

Provenance Information

Oppenheimer Family, San Antonio, Texas, before 1980 (Note 1); John and Kathi Oppenheimer by gift to San Antonio Museum of Art, 2023.
Note 1: This object appears in a photograph of the Oppenheimer collection printed in November 1980 (date appears on the reverse of the photograph).

Exhibition Information

N/A

Publication Information

N/A

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Gift or bequest expected or on loan prior to 2008

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

San Antonio Museum of Art staff began working with and exhibiting objects from the Oppenheimer collection on loan by 1998, a relationship that culminated in the donation of the collection to the museum in 2023. Documents presented to the museum prior to the donation indicate that Herbert Oppenheimer (1911-1989) was active in Mesoamerican art collecting by 1960; documentation also shows that his son, John Oppenheimer, was actively collecting by 1968. This artwork appears in a photograph of the Oppenheimer collection dated to 1980, the earliest photographs of the collection in the museum’s possession.

Provenance Information

Oppenheimer Family, San Antonio, Texas, before 1998 (note 1); John and Kathi Oppenheimer by gift to San Antonio Museum of Art, 2023.
Note 1: This object appears in a photograph of the Oppenheimer collection dated to 1998. It was likely acquired well before the photograph was made, as many objects in the Oppenheimer collection were acquired before 1980.

Exhibition Information

N/A

Publication Information

N/A

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Gift or bequest expected or on loan prior to 2008

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

San Antonio Museum of Art staff began working with and exhibiting objects from the Oppenheimer collection on loan by 1998, a relationship that culminated in the donation of the collection to the museum in 2023. Documents presented to the museum prior to the donation indicate that Herbert Oppenheimer (1911-1989) was active in Mesoamerican art collecting by 1960; documentation also shows that his son, John Oppenheimer, was actively collecting by 1968.

Provenance Information

Oppenheimer Family, San Antonio, Texas, before 1980 (Note 1); John and Kathi Oppenheimer by gift to San Antonio Museum of Art, 2023.
Note 1: This object appears in a photograph of the Oppenheimer collection printed in November 1980 (date appears on the reverse of the photograph).

Exhibition Information

N/A

Publication Information

N/A

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Gift or bequest expected or on loan prior to 2008

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

San Antonio Museum of Art staff began working with and exhibiting objects from the Oppenheimer collection on loan by 1998, a relationship that culminated in the donation of the collection to the museum in 2023. Documents presented to the museum prior to the donation indicate that Herbert Oppenheimer (1911-1989) was active in Mesoamerican art collecting by 1960; documentation also shows that his son, John Oppenheimer, was actively collecting by 1968. This artwork appears in a photograph of the Oppenheimer collection dated to 1980, the earliest photographs of the collection in the museum’s possession.

Provenance Information

Oppenheimer Family, San Antonio, Texas, before 1998 (note 1); John and Kathi Oppenheimer by gift to San Antonio Museum of Art, 2023.
Note 1: This object appears in a photograph of the Oppenheimer collection dated to 1998. It was likely acquired well before the photograph was made, as many objects in the Oppenheimer collection were acquired before 1980.

Exhibition Information

N/A

Publication Information

N/A

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Gift or bequest expected or on loan prior to 2008

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

San Antonio Museum of Art staff began working with and exhibiting objects from the Oppenheimer collection on loan by 1998, a relationship that culminated in the donation of the collection to the museum in 2023. Documents presented to the museum prior to the donation indicate that Herbert Oppenheimer (1911-1989) was active in Mesoamerican art collecting by 1960; documentation also shows that his son, John Oppenheimer, was actively collecting by 1968.