This piece is technically defined as a three-legged vessel, with a flat bottom and staggered legs. It is of a ceramic type that is very characteristic of the city of Teotihuacan, but which we also find in zones during the period that had close with Teotihuacan, such as the Mayan region of the lowlands and the Mexican Gulf Coast. Coastal merchants had at least one neighborhood in the city of the valley of Mexico from which they carried out their activity. Different merchandise traveled in both directions.
Three-legged vessels were reinterpreted in different cities of Mesoamerica; on the coast they were covered with a decoration very characteristic of weaving. It regards the typical fretwork that we associate with Tajin, but appears before this city flourished, which the Teotihuacans themselves imitated in some works. The predominance of the fretwork in the external design of this vessel makes one think it is a piece from the coast. In addition, the black paint, apparently tar, which covers the inside of the vessel, was often used in the Veracruz region.
The vessel is notable for its quality and good preservation if seen from the outside, but is exceptional if we consider what it contains inside. When the piece was fresh, before firing, the artisan made another figure and stuck it to the bottom of the vessel. The piece was then fired and the figure fixed inside the recipient. It is a monkey or, to be exact, a figure with some anthropomorphic features, but whose appearance (particularly its long coiled tail) is reminiscent of a monkey. It could be a howler monkey or a spider monkey; both species are frequent in the humid tropics and appear in mythical stories of Mesoamerican peoples.
What is most notable about this piece is that the monkey appears to be sitting in a very human way. We see that it rests its right "hand" to balance its posture, which is also a form of sitting used by men and women. The monkey looks at us, gazing upward out of the vessel, and does so with a strikingly realistic gesture: it holds its left hand up as if to shade itself from the intense light from the outside. The artistic talent of this piece is outstanding. Its anecdotal or narrative sense and playful character are remarkable. The monkey, which is trapped or lives in the vessel, assumes the presence of an observer: the artisan that made it, the noble who received it, those who presumably placed the vessel in an offering.
It is highly likely that this vessel had a lid, as many others of this type did. The light fully entered the recipient when uncovered. The monkey, whose rest is interrupted, looks upward at the indiscreet observer and, to protect itself from the ray of light that has suddenly streamed into its quarters, raises its hand to its forehead and looks upward at the onlooker, the , the intruder... and now, the museum visitor.
This piece is technically defined as a three-legged vessel, with a flat bottom and staggered legs. It is of a ceramic type that is very characteristic of the city of Teotihuacan, but which we also find in zones during the period that had close with Teotihuacan, such as the Mayan region of the lowlands and the Mexican Gulf Coast. Coastal merchants had at least one neighborhood in the city of the valley of Mexico from which they carried out their activity. Different merchandise traveled in both directions.
