On view
Art of the Ancient Americas
Tecomate (gourd-shaped bowl) with an excised jaguar paw design,
1400–1000 BCE
Olmec style
Early Formative Period
2016-1234
A serpent winds around one vessel, while two others present clawed feet: The distinctive hooked shape of the claws colored red on the tecomate (gourd-shaped bowl) are those of a feline, such as the mighty jaguar, the terrestrial apex predator of Mesoamerica. The long, straight claws carved on the bottle more likely depict bird talons. The Olmec featured in their art a specific raptor, the harpy eagle, the great predator of the sky. Parts of a creature’s body likely stood for the whole, a convention scholars call pars pro toto (part for the whole), a visual strategy frequently employed by Olmec artists. In the deeply excised designs adorning the dish displayed here, intensive reduction and abstraction were used. The designs represent the head of the Olmec Dragon, a supernatural being that blends features of the crocodile, harpy eagle, snake, and feline.
Information
Title
Tecomate (gourd-shaped bowl) with an excised jaguar paw design
Dates
1400–1000 BCE
Medium
Reduction-fired ceramic with red pigment
Dimensions
h. 7.3, diam. 11.7 cm (2 7/8 × 4 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Gillett G. Griffin
Object Number
2016-1234
Place Made
North America, Mexico, Puebla, Las Bocas
Reference Numbers
K502
Culture
Period
Materials
Subject
By 1969, collection of Gillett G. Griffin (1928-2016), Princeton, NJ [1]; 2016, bequeathed to Princeton University Art Museum.
Notes:
[1] According to Peter D. Joralemon, A Study of Olmec Iconography (senior thesis, Yale University, 1969), fig. 100.
-
Peter David Joralemon, "A Study of Olmec Iconography" in Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology No. 7, (1971): 1–95
, figs. 128 and 257 (illus. line drawing) - Peter David Joralemon, "The Olmec Dragon: A Study of Pre-Columbian Iconography," in Origins of Religious Art and Iconography in Preclassic Mesoamerica, ed. Henry B. Nicholson (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1976), fig. 9t (illus. line drawing)
- Michael D. Coe et al., The Olmec World: Ritual and Rulership (Princeton, Princeton University Art Museum, 1996), cat. no. 136, p. 238 (illus.)
