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DescriptionVeracruz Stone Yoke of an Owl, Late Classic, circa AD 550 - 950
Length: 16 ¼ in (41.3 cm); Width: 14 ⅝ in (37.2 cm)Condition reportFor further information on the condition of this lot please contact paul.lewis@sothebys.com ProvenanceJay C. Leff, Uniontown, Pennsylvania, acquired by 1966Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, October 10-11, 1975, lot 489, consigned by the aboveSotheby's, New York, May 12-13, 1983, lot 111, reconsigned by the aboveAcquired at the above auctionLiteratureElizabeth Kennedy Easby, ed., Ancient Art of Latin America from the Collection of Jay C. Leff, New York, 1966, p. 62, cat. no. 312ExhibitedBrooklyn Museum, New York, Ancient Art of Latin America from the Collection of Jay C. Leff, November 22, 1966 - March 5, 1967Catalogue noteThe ballgame is one of the defining cultural rituals of the ancient Mesoamerican world. The great antiquity of the game, from circa 1200 BC to well into the 16th century (and played in various forms today), speaks to the enduring presence and function of this “sport of life and death”.
The Lazar Veracruz yoke of a deeply carved and dramatically outstretched owl is a rare and powerful sculpture within the repertoire of ballgame paraphernalia. Yokes typically feature important animals and reptiles of the natural world, of which frogs and semisubterranean creatures are most frequently portrayed, representing the earth and underworld of the three-part cosmos. The Lazar yoke celebrates this raptorial avian, which represents the celestial level of the cosmos. The owl is aptly chosen for its ability to be both prescient and performative.
Yokes depicting avians, whether owl or eagle, are extremely rare. The best-known owl yoke is the magnificent closed yoke in the Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City. Once part of the collection of Jay C. Leff, the present yoke was featured in the key exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of this early collection of Pre-Columbian art.
The viewer is confronted by the deeply carved, frontal face of the bird, with the huge goggle-like eyes, which were likely inlaid in the center, surrounded by circular raised rims, with the short diamond-shaped beak dipping into the wide taut mouth. The densely layered feathers cascade along each side of the yoke, while the large, flexed feet arch downwards, showing the articulated talons. A thin, raised band with a sharp hook at the front resembles the interior bone of an active wingspan. The artist has chosen a creamy gray stone (likely andesite) studded with black inclusions, a natural coloration corresponding with the the portrayal of an owl's variegated plumage.
These stunning avians consistently populate the sacred worlds of Ancient Mesoamerican mythology and iconography. The nocturnal creatures take central roles in the Popol Vuh, the sprawling epic tale of world creation told by the K’iche’ Maya people. Shooting Owl, One-legged Owl, Macaw Owl, and Skull Owl are the four messengers of Xibalba, the Mayan “place of fright.” Sent by the powerful Death Gods, One Death and Seven Death, this parliament of mythical raptors summons brothers One Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu to their defeat and death in a fateful underworld ballgame. An important event in the Popol Vuh, the thunderous scene has been notably brought to life by Mexican artist Diego Rivera in his unpublished watercolor illustrations of the Ki’che’ epic. His depiction of the feathered underworld messengers evokes an ominous cloud, which looms over the brothers, seen clutching their yokes, foreboding their demise.  Owls were consistently portrayed in the important 16th-century codices. As illustrated aviaries, the codices reflect the distinct mythological and ritual significance of specific birds in ancient Mesoamerica. True to their real-world anatomy, owls were usually drawn boasting a frontal-facing, goggle-eyed stare, standing out against the flock of other birds often shown in profile. The distinct depiction is likely deliberate; Sharpe surmises that the owl’s unique ocular anatomy “was apparently noteworthy to the ancient Mexicans, who emphasized the frontal-facing head in their art, even as far back as Early Classic period Teotihuacan” (Ashley E. Sharpe, “Reexamination of the Birds in the Central Mexican Codices”, Ancient Mesoamerica, vol. 25, no. 2, Fall 2014, p. 15).
The intuitive hunting nature of owls may have added a nuanced perception of this powerful avian in ancient times. As Kettunen notes in his ethnographic research, owls were considered auspicious among hunters: “[…] Among the Mopan, the presence of [a great horned owl] during a hunt is said to signal the presence of game”. Their sharp senses of hearing and seemingly prescient powers extended to foretelling other animals and beings, allowing one to prepare for the actions required. (Harri Kettunen, “Uk’ay Ajbuj: Otherworldly Owls in the Mundo Maya”, Contributions in New World Archeology, no. 10, 2016, p. 139, and pp. 113-148).
THE MESOAMERICAN BALLGAME
Heidi KingArt Historian, Precolumbian Art
This impressive U-shaped sculpture known as a yoke – sometimes called by the Spanish word yugo– is part of a group of objects that were associated with the ballgame in ancient Mesoamerica. The ballgame is one of the most important cultural features shared by ancient peoples throughout Mexico and the Maya area of Guatemala and Honduras. When the Spaniards came to Mexico in the early 16th century, they witnessed and described ballgames in the chronicles. Known as ulama or ullamaliztli in Nahuatl, the language spoken by the Aztecs, the ballgame was played with balls of rubber, a material not known in Europe at that time. Archaeological investigations show that ballgame playing was a wide-ranging tradition going back in time to the second millennium B.C. Variants of the game are still being played today in the Mexican states of Sinaloa and Michoacan.
Mesoamerican peoples played many types of ballgames with rules and styles of play that varied from place to place and through time. Information comes primarily from archaeological discoveries including numerous surviving ballcourts such as El Tajin and Chichen Itza, which are decorated with well-preserved relief carvings showing players engaged in the game. In addition, large quantities of ballgame-related paraphernalia have survived including hachas, palmas and handstones, as well as this magnificently sculpted yoke. These objects have mostly been found in burials and offerings in the Gulf Coast region of Mexico and on the Pacific Coast of Guatemala. Countless ceramic and stone sculptures of figures and painted Maya vessels show players wearing ballgame equipment and often holding balls.
16th-century sources report that the ballgame was played with solid rubber balls made from native latex-producing plants. The ball was thrown onto the field by hand, thereafter players were required to hit the ball with the trunks of their bodies, thighs, knees, and elbows rather than with their hands and feet. Because of the weight and hardness of the balls – some were 12 inches in diameter and weighed as much as 7.5 pounds – players had to wear protective padding, especially around their midsections. Such protective padding was probably made of wood, leather, and cotton. The heavy stone yokes would not have been worn and represent ceremonial versions of ballgame gear that were used in rituals or funerary contexts. The Ballgame CourtAt present more than 1500 ancient ballcourts are known throughout Mesoamerica. One of the earliest ballcourts was found at the site of Paso de la Amada in Guatemala, dating from about 1400 BC. Additional early evidence for the ballgame comes from El Manati on the Gulf Coast of Mexico, where a group of rubber balls were excavated and are dated even earlier. Ballcourts and ballgame-related objects and imagery increase dramatically during the Classic Period (circa 300-900 AD) in Mexico at sites such as Teotihuacan, Monte Alban, and El Tajin, as well as in the Maya area at sites at La Corona, Tikal, Copan and Chichen Itza. Many sites even feature multiple ballcourts such as El Tajin in Veracruz, where archaeologists identified more than fifteen ballcourts.Ballcourts were of varying shapes and sizes, some reaching over ninety yards in length. Typically, they feature a central narrow playing field with endzones. The playing field is often flanked by long narrow buildings, which may have served as stands or viewing areas.
Ceramic ballgame models of the sport in action found in tombs in West Mexico can have three to five raised markers in the ballcourt and as many as 20 or 25 spectators seated along the sides on raised platforms. During the recent excavations at the Templo Major, the most sacred structure in the former Aztec capital city Tenochtitlan, archaeologists found many caches, one of which included two miniature I-shaped ballcourts carved in stone and two balls, one of dark obsidian, the other of light alabaster. This type of discovery emphasizes the importance the ballgame had among the ancient cultures of Mesoamerica. Symbolism of the Ball GameThe ballgame in ancient times was a source of sport and entertainment which also had significant symbolic associations. Scholars have suggested that the movement of the ball across the court echoed the movement of the sun across the sky; approaching the ground it symbolically entered the Underworld, engaging in the eternal battle with the dark forces of the night before rising again at dawn. Connected to this idea is the subject of agricultural fertility which is ensured through the movement of celestial bodies creating seasons and rainfall. Among the ancient Maya the ballgame was the setting for mythological battles between the gods representing the forces of life and death. Numerous painted Maya ceramic vessels and carved stone sculptures show kings dressed as gods reenacting mythological games.
The ballgame was also associated with human sacrifice. Depictions of ballgame-related sacrifice abound throughout Mesoamerica from sculptures at Bilbao on Guatemala’s south coast to ballcourt reliefs at El Tajin and at Chichen Itza. However, despite the seemingly close association of sacrifice and the ballgame, the exact meaning of that sacrifice is unclear.
The deep religious meaning the ballgame had among many indigenous peoples in prehistoric times is apparent in the imagery chosen to decorate ballgame equipment as seen on this boldly carved yoke. Most yokes from Veracruz bear masterfully carved complex imagery of denizens of the Underworld including amphibians such as frogs and toads, saurians such as serpents and crocodiles, often in combination with human heads and skulls.
Depicted on this yoke is a compressed crouching owl; its impressive broad face with wide-open eyes above the prominent beak dominates the curved front of the yoke. On either side of the yoke are its folded wings over compact claws, the stylized wing feathers continuing along the top of the sides of the yoke. The surface of the bi-laterally symmetrical very deep carving is smooth and well-polished. The deep eyes may originally have held shell or stone inlay. Owls are nocturnal birds. Because they often reside in caves and underground burrows they were identified with the night and the dark, deathly forces of the Underworld in ancient Mexican thought. Like other birds, they were considered messengers between the human and supernatural world.