On view
Art of the Ancient Americas
Seated corpulent man,
1000–400 BCE
Olmec style
Middle Formative Period
2018-70
One of the first civilizations of present-day Mexico, the Olmec distributed their ceramics widely. With the shift of the center of Olmec culture from San Lorenzo, Veracruz, to La Venta, Tabasco, around 1000 BCE, however, Olmec-style ceramics became much less pervasive. They were replaced by fine small-scale greenstone sculptures, especially blue-green jadeite and serpentine. In part, this shift may have resulted from increased focus on maize agriculture; the blue-green color of jadeite symbolized successful crops, and the subject matter often involved maize iconography. Incised jewelry, masklike faces, and complexly modeled animal, human, and super-natural figures, all from the Middle Formative period and made in Olmec style, have been discovered throughout most of Mesoamerica and beyond, from Costa Rica to the central Mexican highlands to the southwest Mexican coast in the present-day state of Guerrero.
Information
Title
Seated corpulent man
Dates
1000–400 BCE
Medium
Dark green serpentine
Dimensions
10.5 × 10 × 10 cm (4 1/8 × 3 15/16 × 3 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund
Object Number
2018-70
Place Made
North America, El Salvador, Chalchuapa or vicinity
Culture
Period
Type
Materials
Techniques
Subject
Roberto Ardón, Los Angeles [1]; June, 1968, sold to André Emmerich, New York (OM 43) [2]; June 17, 1969, sold to Howard J. and Saretta Barnet, New York [3]; 14 May, 2018, sold through Sotheby’s, The Shape of Beauty: Sculpture from the Collection of Howard and Saretta Barnet, lot 18, to the Princeton University Art Museum.
Notes:
[1] According to Emmerich archive card. Copy in the curatorial file.
[2] Ibid.
[3] According to Emmerich invoice. Copy in the curatorial file.
