Seated Lord from a Relief Panel: An Object-Based Study

Seated Lord from a Relief Panel, a Late Classic Maya panel from the Palenque region, is a fascinating object that, despite considerable scholarly interest, has yet to receive in-depth individual consideration. This panel fragment and its associated pieces—presently divided among multiple institutions—contain anachronistic iconography, references to a defunct foreign superpower, and unidentified Palenque elites. Through intensive object-based research, this thesis will unite Seated Lord’s disparate scholarship, analyzing the panel’s iconography and the original relief’s place within Palenque’s tri-figure panel tradition. Seated Lord’s pivotal role in the Museum of Fine Art, Houston’s 1960s expansion of their Ancient American art collection will be explored as well, along with the American museum context that made such expansion possible and desirable.