Female Figurine (c. 400–100 BCE): Art, History and Details

Female Figurine (c. 400–100 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Small, solid, hand-modeled figurines were a staple of the early Mesoamerican artistic repertoire. Made in distinctive styles corresponding to geographic regions, they likely were used in a variety of contexts, including rites to assure health, fertility, and prosperity. This example is from the Chupícuaro region, north of modern-day Mexico City.

Object facts

• Title: Female Figurine
• Date: c. 400–100 BCE
• Culture: Mesoamerica, Mexico, Guanajuato, Chupícuaro
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: earthenware with pigment
• Dimensions: Overall: 7.9 x 2.7 cm (3 1/8 x 1 1/16 in.)
• Collection: AA - Mesoamerica
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1990.138

A detail from the museum

This figurine is small enough to fit comfortably in the palm of a hand.

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.