75 FIG. 3: Mural fragment. Teotihuacan; Teotihuacan, Mexico. C. AD 500–550. Painted stucco, earthen aggregate; 72.4 x 96.5 cm. Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of Morton D. May, inv. #237:1978. FIG. 4: Figure carrying corn. Aztec; Valley of Mexico, Mexico. AD 1410–1510. Stone, pigment. H: 76.8 cm. Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of Morton D. May, inv. #304:1978. FIG. 5: Column with glyphs. Maya; Chiapas, Mexico. AD 715. Limestone, pigment. H: 57 cm. Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of Morton D. May, inv. #384:1978. FIG. 6: Fragment of a “host” figure. Teotihuacan; Mexico. AD 250–600. Ceramic, pigment. H: 20.2 cm. Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of Morton D. May, inv. #230:1978. (fig. 2). As part of the current reinstallation, the staff of the museum worked closely with their counterparts at the Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología in Guatemala City to renew the loan and develop a collaborative conservation program. As a result, Naranjo Stela 8 is now exhibited in the museum’s Sculpture Hall, where it will remain until its return to Guatemala in 2015. When May collected the work of Max Beckmann, he made a point to purchase paintings from all phases of the artist’s career. Although May’s surviving correspondence is laconic on the subject of an overall goal for his pre- Columbian collection, the wide-ranging collection of Mesoamerican art he assembled suggests May had a similar purpose in mind. The installation begins with an entire case devoted to the figurines of Formative Period Central Mexico (drawn largely from the collection of George Pepper) installed in the manner of Miguel Covarrubias’ famous “family tree” of figurine types (fig. 1). A fragment of a mural from the Techinantitla compound of Teotihuacan (fig. 3), a Classic Period Maya glyphic column (fig. 5), and an Aztec sculpture of Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl carrying a sack of maize (fig. 4) complete a brief introductory section. The display continues in an adjacent gallery with a presentation of other ceramic and stone objects from Teotihuacan. Among the former is an exceptional example of a so-called “host” figurine once in the collection of Robert Woods Bliss (fig. 6). Among the latter is a stone figure of Huehueteotl, the Old God (fig. 7), which, while of a type common in Mexican museums, is rarely seen elsewhere. Rarer still is an assemblage of fifty-eight obsidian miniatures that are quite similar to
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