Elephant mask (mbap mteng)

I consider [this] to be his most significant donation to Princeton from his personal collection, a collection that included thousands of objects. It is modest in scale and material‚—a small figural pairing modeled in clay, associated with the area around the modern-day town of Xochipala in the Mexican state of Guerrero. Gillett and his close friends Carlo Gay and Frances Pratt hypothesized that the uncannily naturalistic Xochipala figurines were the oldest artistic productions of ancient Mexico, predating the famous Olmec civilization and its more abstract art. [...] While more recent research has proven that the portrait-like Xochipala figurines are a thousand years younger than Gillett and his colleagues proposed, this in no way diminishes the importance or impressiveness of these works. The paired figures in particular still garner praise as superb works of art, featured as such, for example, in Honour and Fleming's A World History of Art, one of the primary textbooks used in introductory college art history courses.

They brilliantly capture an intimate conversation, one that seems to involve teaching and learning. What makes them special is the manner in which the subtleties of bodily positioning and gaze convey so effectively the nature of interaction between the two figures‚—one older and perceptibly patient, the other animated and engaged, eager to know more. I can't help but see Gillett [Griffin] in this calm, generous instructor, and suspect I am not alone in envisioning myself as that eager student.

--Bryan R. Just