Female Figurine (c. 1200–900 BCE): Art, History and Details

Female Figurine (c. 1200–900 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This ceramic figurine—in the style of Tlatilco, an early village site near Mexico City—depicts a nude female with an elaborate coiffure, attenuated arms, and the traces of mineral pigment. Since many figurines from the period depict females, modern interpreters usually connect them to fertility concerns. At Tlatilco, figurines were found in human burials that had been placed under the floors of homes.

Object facts

• Title: Female Figurine
• Date: c. 1200–900 BCE
• Culture: Mesoamerica, Central Mexico, Tlatilco
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: earthenware with pigment
• Dimensions: Overall: 10.9 x 4.1 cm (4 5/16 x 1 5/8 in.)
• Collection: AA - Mesoamerica
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1990.144

A detail from the museum

Figurines were also made of perishable materials including wood, paper, cloth, rubber, and dough.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James C. Gruener

Further reading listed by the museum

• Young-Sánchez, Margaret. "The Gruener Collection of Pre-Columbian Art." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 79, no. 7 (1992): 234-75.

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.