Idol and Altar at Copán – Frederick Catherwood (1844)

A Maya king carved in stone, watching over the jungle for more than a thousand years. In this 1844 view, Frederick Catherwood depicts one of the great sculpted stelae of Copán, which he called an “idol”, with the altar placed before it. The stela shows a richly adorned figure with a calm, smiling face, framed by scrolls and feathered ornaments. The altar in front takes the form of a huge monster head with round eyes and bared teeth. Behind them, the stepped walls of the ancient city disappear under the trees.

When Catherwood and the American writer John Lloyd Stephens reached Copán in 1839, the site lay hidden in the forest of western Honduras. Stephens famously bought the ruins for fifty dollars, while Catherwood spent weeks drawing the stelae, struggling to render carvings unlike anything known in European art. His drawings, published in Views of Ancient Monuments in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan (London, 1844), showed the world the genius of Maya sculpture.

Copán, the city of stelae

Copán was one of the great Maya kingdoms of the Classic period. Its rulers, above all the 8th-century king known as Waxaklajuun Ub’aah K’awiil (18 Rabbit), commissioned stelae of exceptional depth and detail, which earned the city its nickname as the “Athens of the Maya world”. The site has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1980.

• Artist: Frederick Catherwood (1799-1854)
• Date: 1844
• Source: Views of Ancient Monuments in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan
• Technique: colour lithograph
• Place: Copán, Honduras

Its vertical format makes it ideal for a narrow wall, an entrance or a study. It pairs beautifully with El Castillo at Chichén Itzá. Discover all of Catherwood’s Maya views in our Frederick Catherwood collection.