Grouped Pigment Jars 300–800 Teotihuacan This vessel originated at Teotihuacan, a major urban development and complex culture located in central Mexico. The work integrates five globular ceramic jars, four of them positioned peripherally to form a square footprint, the fifth centered and hovering slightly above its counterparts. Together, the jars form a five-lobed shape known as a quincunx, a symbol of great cosmological importance for Mesoamerican religions. Trace amounts of pigment coat the interiors of each of the jars, revealing the vessel’s use as a painter’s pallet. These pigments

Grouped Pigment Jars 300–800 Teotihuacan This vessel originated at Teotihuacan, a major urban development and complex culture located in central Mexico. The work integrates five globular ceramic jars, four of them positioned peripherally to form a square footprint, the fifth centered and hovering slightly above its counterparts. Together, the jars form a five-lobed shape known as a quincunx, a symbol of great cosmological importance for Mesoamerican religions. Trace amounts of pigment coat the interiors of each of the jars, revealing the vessel’s use as a painter’s pallet. These pigments maintain exceptional brightness and clarity, which suggests that either the object was used only once or twice or, as will be argued here, that the painter who used the pallet carefully ensured that each color of pigment was routinely allocated to its assigned jar. The object’s bright orange-red coloration and wall thinness are diagnostic of the Teotihuacan “Thin Orange” ceramic tradition, which thrived in the latter half of the Early Classic period (ca. 200 – 600). This type of ceramic is notable for its technical and visual refinement as well as its frequent appearance in archaeological contexts beyond the Teotihuacan city limits. “Thin Orange” was manufactured east of Teotihuacan in the region of Puebla, but its distribution was controlled by the city. In the present vessel, the ceramicist joined the lower four jars with pairs of solid struts that extend radially ninety degrees from the midpoints of each jar body. The fifth jar attaches to the lower jars with four modest applications of slip, viscous clay paste, at a point bisecting, though slightly above, the angles of the connecting struts. Short vertical walls serve as lips projecting from each jar on which the artist appears to have refined the tip of her/his brush or stylus before painting. The deliberate maintenance of separation between pigments numbered among the most desired attributes of succ

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