Cleveland Museum of Art

Female Seated Figure

Date

100 BCE–300 CE

Medium

ceramic

Culture

Mexico, Nayarit

Department

Art of the Americas

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This couple-extremely fine examples of their kind-may commemorate the marriage of an important person, such as a chief, but could also represent siblings of a chiefly family. Whatever their relationship, their unity is conveyed by their physical similarities, including their jewelry, which marks high social station. The female is unusual in nursing an infant, likely a reference to generational renewal and the continuation of noble bloodlines. The significance of the male’s activity-beating a turtle-shell drum- is not understood.

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