On view
Double-faced female figurine,
1400–1100 BCE
Although not the first places where ceramics were produced in Mesoamerica, villages in the central basin of Mexico, now encompassed by Mexico City, the adjacent valley of Morelos to the south, and the region around the modern town of Las Bocas, Puebla, are among the areas most renowned for their ancient ceramic vessels and figurines. Local workers and amateur pothunters were the first, in the early twentieth century, to encounter the remains of these villages. The objects they looted from the sites and sold on the art market became prized by a small number of art collectors in Mexico and the United States. Later, archaeologists excavated sites in the area, contributing crucial information about the original burial context for these works.
Among the thousands of figurines discovered at Tlatilco, some represent uncommon human characteristics, including diprosopus (conjoined twins), as depicted elsewhere in this case. Intriguingly, this figurine possesses three eyes, two mouths, and two noses. The figurine is unbroken, with still-vibrant yellow and red coloration, but its strict, intentional symmetry is disrupted by the surface accretions of dark material that probably adhered to the object in the burial context, adding variety and a sense of age.
More Context
Didactics
The site of Tlatilco, in the western portion of the Valley of Mexico, is well known for its distinctive figurines, which were among the earliest produced in Mesoamerica. This example is prototypical of a variety often referred to as "pretty ladies." Characteristically, the figurine is completely nude, revealing an exaggerated contrast in proportions, from heavy thighs and hips to stumpy feet and a wasp waist. The short arms extend away from the body in a pose that has led to the additional designation as "dancers." Tlatilco figurines document a fascination with physical deformities, the most common being two-headed or fused-head females. The works may depict an extremely rare deformity known as diprosopus, literally "two-faced" conjoined twins (almost always stillborn), who would have struck Tlatilco natives as otherworldly and supernatural. Diprosopus imagery was probably implemented to symbolize duality, a fundamental concept ubiquitous to Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican religions.
Information
1400–1100 BCE
North America, Mexico, Mexico City, Central Mexico, Tlatilco
By April, 1967, Gillett G. Griffin (1928-2016), Princeton, NJ [1]; 1999, gift of Gillett G. Griffin to the Princeton University Art Museum.
Notes:
[1] According to a dated slide (GG90003146) in the Griffin archive.
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Frances Pratt and Carlo T. E. Gay, Ceramic figures of ancient Mexico: Guerrero, México, Guanajuato, Michoacán, 1600 B.C.-300 A.D. (Graz: Akademische Druck-u. Verlagsanstalt, 1979).
, illus., fig. 258 - Gerald Berjonneau, Emile Deletaille, and Jean-Louis Sonnery, Rediscovered Masterpieces of Mesoamerica: Mexico-Guatemala-Honduras (Boulogne: Editions Arts, 1985)., cat. no. 380 (illus.)
- Michael D. Coe et al., The Olmec World: Ritual and Rulership (Princeton, Princeton University Art Museum, 1996)
- Jill Guthrie, ed., In celebration: works of art from the Collections of Princeton Alumni and Friends of The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 1997)., p. 83, cat. no. 81 (illus.)
- Gordon Bendersky, "Tlatilco Sculptures, Diprosopus, and the Emergence of Medical Illustrations," Perspectives in Biologly and Medicine 43, no. 4 (2000): 477-501., fig. 2, pp. 477–501 (illus.)
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1999," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 59, no. 1/2 (2000): p. 70-101., p. 92
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 265 (illus.)
- Richard Schlagman and Phaidon Press, The Art Museum (London; New York: Phaidon Press Inc., 2011)., fig. 10, p. 237 (illus.)
- Michael D. Coe and Rex Koontz, Mexico from the Olmecs to the Aztecs, 7th edition (London and New York: Thames and Hudson, 2013)., fig. 23, p. 46 (illus.)
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 317
- Deborah Aaronson, Diane Fortenberry, and Rebecca Morrill, Body of Art (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2015).
