Figure of a Man Holding a Dog and Ball Artist: Unknown

100 B.C.–A.D. 250

Art of the Ancient Americas

By appointment, Wurtele Study Center

The male figure of this couple (see 1958.15.17.a) may have been ritually decapitated in antiquity, at the time that he was placed in the shaft tomb chamber. The figure, now with his head restored, was perhaps a surrogate sacrifice intended to placate the spirit of the dead.

Medium

Ceramic with red-orange slip and traces of yellow, black, and white pigment

Dimensions

14 1/2 in. (36.8 cm)

Credit Line

Gift of the Olsen Foundation

Accession Number

1958.15.17b

Geography

Mexico

Culture

West Mexico, Nayarit, Ixtlán del Río Style

Period

Protoclassic Period

Classification

Sculpture

Disclaimer

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 records is ongoing.

Provenance
Carlebach Gallery, New York, October 1, 1955; 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), 182, 345, no. 407, fig. 224.
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

funerary art, human figures (visual works), sculpture

Subject

hollow men necklaces

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