Currently not on view
Seated adult and youth,
400 BCE–200 CE
Xochipala Figurines
Ceramic figurines from Xochipala, in the Mexican state of Guerrero, are renowned for their attention to anatomical detail and expressiveness. Precise renditions of human anatomy—including bone, muscle, and fat as well as the telltale signs of age—lead us to imagine that the figurines are portraits of specific individuals. Perhaps the greatest example of Xochipala figural art, the seated pair displayed here captures an engaged, animated conversation, brilliantly expressed through the careful posing of unadorned bodies. Although Xochipala figures once were believed to predate the Olmec culture, modern scientific analyses indicate that they were made one thousand years later than previously thought, after the decline of the Olmec.
More About This Object
Information
400 BCE–200 CE
North America, Mexico, Guerrero, Central Mexico, Xochipala
Possibly sold in Mexico by Alberto Ulrich to Gillett G. Griffin (1928-2016), Princeton, NJ [1]; possibly September 19, 1970, sold by Teochita Inc to Gillett G. Griffin (1928-2016), Princeton, NJ; 1972, gift of Gillett G. Griffin to the Princeton University Art Museum.
Notes:
[1] According to Gillett Griffin, he acquired this pair from Alberto Ulrich, who brought these pieces from Mexico to the US. There is also a Teochita invoice dated September 12, 1970, in the curatorial file that may match these pieces. It describes Teochita objects ZJ 48 and 49, a “Pair Clay Figures. Xochipala, Guerrero.”
- Carlo T. E. Gay, Xochipala: The Beginnings of Olmec Art (Princeton, The Princeton University Art Museum, 1972)., figs. 34–36 (illus.)
- Gillett G. Griffin, "Xochipala, the Earliest Great Art Style in Mexico," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 116, no. 4 (August 1972): 301-309, figs. 3 and 4, p. 304 (illus.)
- Curt Muser, Facts and Artifacts of Ancient Middle America: A Glossary of Terms and Words Used in the Archaeology and Art History of Pre-Columbian Mexico and Central America (NewYork: E. P. Dutton, 1978)., pl. 26 (illus.)
- Allen Rosenbaum, "'Gillett and Me': How a Eurocentric Museum Director Learned to Love Pre-Columbian Art," Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 64 (2005): 8-19., fig. 14, p. 18
- Hugh Honour and John Fleming, A World History of Art, 7th revised edition (London: Laurence King Publishing, 2005)., fig. 3.45, p. 109 (illus.)
- 10,000 Years of Art (London and New York: Phaidon, 2009)., p. 60 (illus.)
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 135
