Mayan Woman Rosewood Frame

A silver Mayan woman, sculpted in relief and mounted on red velvet within a pyramid-shaped mitred rosewood frame, is Spratling working as sculptor and framer at once. The pyramidal frame is itself a nod to Mesoamerican architecture, surrounding a figure drawn from the same ancient world.

The Mayan subject reflects the pre-Columbian sources Spratling drew on throughout his career, the ancient world serving as a point of departure for new work (Morrill, pdf p. 39). Pairing silver with the warmth of rosewood is the material contrast Morrill traces in his affinity for Puiforcat (Morrill, p. 224), here carried into a framed presentation object rather than a utilitarian one.

Framed silver figures of this kind are rarer in his output than jewelry or tableware, and the combination of relief figure, velvet ground, and mitred rosewood pyramid marks this as a deliberate composition.