Figurine with Back Rack (300–900 CE): Art, History and Details

Figurine with Back Rack (300–900 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Maya figurines—made by hand, with molds, or sometimes a combination of the two techniques—represent a wide range of human, animals, and supernatural beings. This example is a male with an enormous backrack, an article of ceremonial attire worn by dancers and other courtly personnel. Figurines have been found in tombs and offerings but also in household contexts.

Object facts

• Title: Figurine with Back Rack
• Date: 300–900 CE
• Culture: Mexico, Maya, Jaina style
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: molded and modeled pottery with traces of pigment
• Dimensions: Overall: 23.2 x 10.6 x 7.5 cm (9 1/8 x 4 3/16 x 2 15/16 in.)
• Collection: AA - Mesoamerica
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1990.172

A detail from the museum

Figurines from Jaina, an elite Maya burial ground, served as companions for the dead.

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.