Geometrically Patterned Female Figure
Unknown Artist
400–100 BCE
Medium
Ceramic, slip
Dimensions
15.6 × 8 × 5.7 cm
Classification
Sculpture
Department
Art of the Americas
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James C. Gruener
Accession Number
1990.155
About this artwork
Artists of the Chupícuaro culture, based to the north of modern-day Mexico City, may be best known for hollow ceramic figurines like this one. Always female and often apparently pregnant, such figurines commonly are painted with stepped geometric motifs in vibrant, highly burnished slips (creamy mixtures of water and crushed minerals). The meanings of the motifs and the figurines themselves are poorly understood.