Female Captive

A.D. 600–900

Ceramic with pigment

22.8 × 8.3 × 7.1 cm (9 × 3 1/4 × 2 13/16 in.)

Gift of the Olsen Foundation

1958.15.9

Complete nudity is rare in Maya art. Adorned only with a necklace and bracelets, this muscular young woman may be either a noble captive who has been stripped of clothes and headdress or one of the maidens who serve the Maize God.

Geography:

Made in Mexico

Status:

On view

Culture:

Mexico, probably Campeche, Jaina Island, Maya

Period:

Late Classic Period

Classification:

Sculpture

Provenance:

Possibly Stable Gallery, New York, February 17, 1956 or possibly Alfred Stendahl Gallery, Los Angeles, March 1, 1957; Fred H. Olsen (1891–1986), and Florence Quittenton Olsen, Guilford, Conn.; gift in 1958 to Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.

Bibliography:

George A. Kubler, ed., Pre-Columbian Art of Mexico and Central America (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1986), 136–37, 298, no. 302, fig. 153.

Handbook of the Collections, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), 318, ill.

Susan B. Matheson, Art for Yale: A History of the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2001), 166, fig. 163.

Mary E. Miller et al., Fiery Pool: The Maya and the Mythic Sea, eds. Daniel Finamore and Stephen D. Houston, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Peabody Essex Museum, 2010), 58, no. 11, ill.

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.