Female Figure (100 BCE–700 CE): Art, History and Details

Female Figure (100 BCE–700 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This figure, which may once have worn small garments, might be a tomb offering. Her tapered head reflects the practice of cranial shaping, which may identify her social group and serve as a mark of beauty. Her fleshy hips likely refer to human and plant fertility, since food is the source of such bodily wealth. Her identity is unknown.

Object facts

• Title: Female Figure
• Date: 100 BCE–700 CE
• Culture: Peru, South Coast, Nasca
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: earthenware with colored slips
• Dimensions: Overall: 28.6 x 13.4 x 10.3 cm (11 1/4 x 5 1/4 x 4 1/16 in.)
• Collection: AA - Andes
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1997.184

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Major European Porcelain Crucifix, Pre-Columbian Figure, and Other Works Added to CMA Collection,” December 3, 1997, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Young-Sanchez, Margaret, "Andean Offering", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 39 no. 01, January 1999
• Franklin, David. The Cleveland Museum of Art. London: Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd., 2012.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.