Plate with Supernatural Being
Unknown Artist
900–600 BCE
Medium
stone (probably steatite [soapstone])
Dimensions
{"overall":{"height":0.04,"width":0.164}}
Classification
Ceramic
Department
Art of the Americas
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
J.H. Wade Trust Fund
Accession Number
2021.131
About this artwork
This plate is carved with a feline supernatural sacrificer who holds a severed human head in its clawed paws. The diagonal clusters of plant foliage at the figure’s shoulders and hips imply that death is tied to the earth’s fertility, one being a precondition for the other. The figure, therefore, may be an apotheosis of the life-death cycle.