Male Seated Figure

Cleveland Museum of Art

Male 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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