This vessel is a masterpiece of composition graced with the rich quality of its original painting. The vivid hues of the central figure are in blue, black, orange and brown against a white-slipped pastel background. The central figure represents the insatiable “earth monster". A fantastic clawed, feathered and toad-like creature, this Central American deity embodies the earth, receives the dead, as well as the heavenly bodies (gods) as they slip daily below the horizon line into the nether world. This creature is framed by what seems to be elaborate shields trimmed with brilliantly colored feathers with black balls at the ends. The large size of this vessel reveals to us that it may have been the centerpiece of attraction during rituals. We are drawn again and again through this skillful arrangement, compelled to pleasantly remember the fantastic creatures envisioned in our own childhood.