An artwork on Galleree from Cleveland Museum of Art.
About the artwork
Ballgame Palmac. 900–1100
Stone palmas—so-called today for their palm frond-like shape—are ceremonial sculptures that may replicate lightweight gear worn over the chest during the ballgame. The scene on the back of this palma vividly illustrates the tie between the ballgame and sacrifice. A bat descends from the top, clutching severed human body parts, and at the center an upright figure brandishes a blade over a reclining victim. The scene's many animal figures, including the one on the front, may belong to ballgame mythology that now is lost.
The Mesoamerican ballgame was played with a hard rubber ball that players bounced off their hips.
stone
Overall: 49.2 x 23.5 x 11.4 cm (19 3/8 x 9 1/4 x 4 1/2 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
In the hushed corners of an ancient world, where the air buzzed with the echoes of history and the magic of storytelling danced in subtle shadows, stood the stone palmas—ceremonial sculptures whispering tales of a time when sport intertwined with the sacred. Their palm frond-like shapes reached upward, as if yearning for the sky, while their surfaces bore engravings that invited curious eyes to explore their woven narratives.
Turning each stone palmas over felt like unraveling a tightly held secret. On its back, a scene unfolded, vivid and haunting. Here, a bat emerged from the top, a striking figure that grasped not just wood, but something far more chilling: the severed parts of human bodies. Below it, in a moment frozen in time, an upright figure wielded a blade, poised with a grim inevitability above a reclining victim. It was a haunting dance of life and death, of glory and sacrifice, wrapped in the frenzy of the ballgame—a contest steeped in ritual and reverence.
Surrounding this chilling tableau, a menagerie of animal figures flitted across the stone. Their presence suggested a deeper mythology, one that whispered of forgotten tales, lost to the pages of time. Perhaps these creatures were spectators in a divine game, guardians of a narrative that tied the threads of humanity to the cosmos. They beckoned the viewer to feel the pulse of history, to understand that in the world of the ballgame, every cheer and gasp carried the weight of life itself.
Each facet of the stone palma resonated with a solemn truth: that to play was to honor the past, to remember those who came before, and to tread along the fine line between celebration and sacrifice. In this artful creation, the echoes of an age-long legacy lingered—a reminder of what it means to be human in the face of the divine.
About the artist
Creating transformative experiences through art “for the benefit of all the people forever.”The Cleveland Museum of Art is renowned for the quality and breadth of its collection, which includes more than 66,500 artworks and spans 6,000 years of achievement in the arts. The artworks shared on this platform are sourced from the museum's Open Access data under the CC0 license. No endorsement is implied.Address: 11150 East Boulevard, Cleveland, OH, USA 44106
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