On view
Art of the Ancient Americas
Wheeled feline,
750–900
Nopiloa
Late Classic Period (Nopiloa III)
2004-46
Artists from south-central Veracruz occasionally created kinetic, puppet-like figures in clay, such as this wheeled feline and squatting, masked performer. Wheeled “toys”—which, indeed, may have served as children’s playthings—provide the only evidence that wheels were used in any part of Mesoamerica. The other object moved as well. The performer’s head was modeled separately from its body, as was its now-missing lower jaw. Holes at the sides of the mouth, the base of the head, and the top of the neck confirm that multiple strings once held the pieces together. Pulling different strings would have allowed one to move the head and the jaw, animating the sculpture.
More About This Object
Information
Title
Wheeled feline
Dates
750–900
Medium
Ceramic with buff-colored slip
Dimensions
15.6 × 9.5 × 18 cm (6 1/8 × 3 3/4 × 7 1/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Gillett G. Griffin
Object Number
2004-46
Place Made
North America, Mexico, Veracruz, south-central Veracruz, San Marcos
Culture
Subject
By 1986, Gillett G. Griffin (1928-2016), Princeton, NJ [1]; 2004, gift to the Princeton University Art Museum.
Notes:
[1] On loan to the museum in 1986 (L.1986.91).
- Marilyn M. Goldstein, Ceremonial Sculpture of Ancient Veracruz (Brookville: Long Island University, 1987), no. 120, p. 73
- Harmer Johnson, ed. Guide to the Arts of the Americas (New York: Rizzoli, 1992), p. 89 (illus.)
- John H. Burkhalter III and Gillett G. Griffin, Music from the Land of the Jaguar (Princeton: Princeton University Art Museum, 2004)., cover (illus.)
- "Acquisitions of the Princeton University Art Museum 2004," Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 64 (2005): p. 91-135., pp. 133–134 (illus.)
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 268 (illus.)
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 332
