Seated Figure
Unknown Artist
c. 900–300 BCE
Medium
albitite
Dimensions
11 × 6.2 × 3.9 cm
Classification
Jade
Department
Art of the Americas
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Accession Number
1941.390
About this artwork
Like their contemporaries, the Olmec made figurines but of greenstone rather than clay. This one, whose identity and use are mysterious, holds objects that may address nature's fertility: on the right, perhaps a cut conch shell that refers to water, and on the left, what may be a plant or a bundle of green feathers that symbolizes new vegetation.