On view
Art of the Ancient Americas
Seated rotund figurine,
1400–1000 BCE
Olmec style
Early Formative Period
y1987-45
Small figurines from central Mexico sometimes display distinctive Olmec traits such as thin eyes framed by puffy lids and thick, downturned mouths, revealing exceptional attention to the human form. Some figures are ungendered and shown in complex poses; often they have exaggerated features, such as the rotund torso of the seated figure displayed here. Other figurines have traits associated with men or women, such as the standing woman with breasts and broad hips. The meaning and function of this distinctive set of Olmec-influenced figurines remain a mystery, although they may, like the so-called Olmec babies, allude to ancestral souls.
Information
Title
Seated rotund figurine
Dates
1400–1000 BCE
Medium
Ceramic with cream and red slip-paint
Dimensions
10.5 × 11.1 × 8.5 cm (4 1/8 × 4 3/8 × 3 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund
Object Number
y1987-45
Place Made
North America, Mexico, Puebla, Las Bocas
Culture
Techniques
Subject
1987, Antiquities of the Americas (Keith Finello), Pasadena, CA, sold to Princeton University Art Museum.
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1987", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 47, no. 1 (1988): p. 30-54., pp. 51–52 (illus.)
- Franz Feuchtwanger, Cerámica Olmeca (Mexico, D.F.: Editorial Patria, 1989)., cat. no. 63 (illus.)
- Harmer Johnson, ed. Guide to the Arts of the Americas (New York: Rizzoli, 1992), p. 124 (illus.)
- Michael D. Coe et al., The Olmec World: Ritual and Rulership (Princeton, Princeton University Art Museum, 1996), fig. 3, p. 51 (illus.)
