This has the same chromatic, design and technique characteristics as the other of the same collection, maybe forming part of the same narrative sequence. The headdresses are so similar that there are many possibilities that both pieces were made by the same artist or the same workshop and therefore, its origin was the same; It is also quite likely that arrived together in a single lot.
The piece is of unknown origin although both this , like the other from the same collection, have been attributed to the site of El Chicozapote, northwest of Yaxchilan, halfway between this city and Piedras Negras in the Usumacinta region. The is rectangular, but the balance and harmony is perfect. If the was divided into four sections, one of them would be occupied by the throne or bench of an anthropomorphic face on which the two protagonists of the scene sit and talk; It could well be one of those anthropomorphic and mythical hills so common in the representations of Palenque; the two characters, in profile, sit on it in eastern fashion, so close together that their knees touch.
The character on the right wears a headdress that is the same in design and layout as the other piece; circular and tubular, topped with a bundle of feathers arching forward. Also, it coincides in that the front is adorned with beads that are painted blue, perhaps because they were made of jadeite; this headdress is typical of the priests, maybe that's why the site on which the protagonists of the story sit is a mythical hill, as in the Templo de la Cruz Foliada de Palenque (see drawing).
The character wears, as the only ornaments, a square earring held by a long jadeite tube and a necklace of large beads also made of jadeite, which is tied and hangs down the back. His skirt is simple, of blue dyed cotton and knotted by a twist at the waist. One hand rests on his left leg, while the other gesturing with a fist in front of his listener.
The character that is in front of him has long hair, collected in rolled tufts, bent forward and knotted at the front. The headdress is made with a fabric band that gathers his hair and is knotted at the front; it ends in a bundle of blue feathers that arch towards the back. The ornaments are very similar to those of his partner; circular earrings closed with a long tubular plug and a necklace of large beads hanging down the back. The skirt is also blue dyed cotton and tied with a twist on the side.
The composition of the scene is closed, since both characters are facing each other, and the stasis of the figures is broken by the movement of the hands, which at the time must have spoke for themselves, a language of gestures by researchers of the mayan culture is yet to be deciphered. The bodies of the two characters were painted in red and the artist intentionally marked the musculature. Both priests show the forehead shaped by oblique tabulation, reason why the eyes become almond-shaped and oblique, practically losing the fold of the eyelid.
Between both characters we see a block prepared to contain a text that was never written; this marks the vertical axis of the scene. Certainly one can assert that both characters belong to the Mayan priestly elite and discussed important issues, which the viewer of the time must have undoubtedly known because of the gestures made by their hands.
