Two-headed Female Figurine (1200–400 BCE): Art, History and Details

Two-headed Female Figurine (1200–400 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 in central Mexico—depicts a female with two heads and stubby arms. Since many figurines from the period depict females, modern interpreters usually connect them to fertility concerns. Here, however, the physical abnormalities may indicate a relationship with the supernatural realm.

Object facts

• Title: Two-headed Female Figurine
• Date: 1200–400 BCE
• Culture: Mesoamerica, Central Mexico, Tlatilco
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: Ceramic, pigment
• Dimensions: Overall: 9.6 x 4.2 x 1.8 cm (3 3/4 x 1 5/8 x 11/16 in.)
• Collection: AA - Mesoamerica
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1990.141

A detail from the museum

Double-headed figurines may reflect the belief that interaction between two basic principles gives rise to the universe.

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.