HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



Fig. 12.- 



-Head on Stela I at 

 Seibal. 



form an unusual profile. On Stela 9 (fig. IT, b) the nose, and in fact 

 the whole face, is long. The type is youthful. On Stela 10 the face is 

 full, the nose short and thick, and the eye much rounder than in the 



previous instances, while a mustache and 

 imperial adorn the upper and lower lips. All 

 in all the face wears a complacent and be- 

 nevolent expression. The face of the war- 

 rior on Stela 11 evinces a very different 

 spirit (pi. xn). The sturdy and somewhat 

 ferocious countenance on this last monu- 

 ment of the group is partially concealed be- 

 hind a mask of the Long-nosed God. It is 

 not unlikely that one of the rare and beauti- 

 ful masks made of precious stones set in 

 mosaic over a wooden base is here delineated. The warrior wears a 

 mustache and imperial, and has heavy eyebrows and a cleft in his 

 chin. In short, all these sculptures create the effect of true portrai- 

 ture. The hieroglyphs on this series of monuments are few in number, 

 and whether name-glyphs occur among them cannot be stated with 

 assurance. 



The indefinable feeling that we are gazing upon the sculptured 

 presentment of a dead ruler is still stronger in the case of Stela 1 at 

 Seibal. This splendid monument, characterized by ultimate simplicity 

 of highest art, shows us a man of flesh and soul, with a face both strong 

 and beautiful. The date is almost surely 10.2.0.0.0, 3 Ahau 3 Ceh, 

 the latest found at any of the great southern cities. This monument 

 may justly be called a valedictory effort of the first and most wonder- 

 ful civilization of the ancient Maya, the civilization that gave to the 

 world so many strangely beautiful products of art in stone overcast 

 with an ineffable spirit of religion. But if we are justified in seeing a 

 genuine portrait in this supreme example, then we may be reasonably 

 sure that many other sculptures from Mexico and Central America 

 are, on the basis of intention if not of achievement, to be classed as 

 portraits. 



American Museum of Natural History 

 New York City 



[450 



