Seated Figure with Harpy Eagle Crest (Primary Title)
Unknown (Artist)
Ceramic figures of this type, associated with the Olmec culture, were produced throughout Central Mexico between 1500 and 500 BC. The figures are distinguished by highly naturalistic, infantile bodies combined with unnatural features such as exaggerated facial characteristics and, in this case, a head crest, all of which suggest supernatural beings or shamans in the act of spiritual transformation. The jagged crest symbolizes this figure’s transformational state between a human and the harpy eagle, one of the primary deities of the Olmec.
Middle Formative
Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund
"Sacred Symbols: Three-thousand Years of Native American Art". A FRAME exhibition. Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France, July 16 - September 29, 2002; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, France, October 24, 2002-January 13, 2003; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon, France, February 19 - April 28, 2003; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes, France, May 28 - August 25, 2003; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN, October 26, 2003 - January 11, 2004
Image released via Creative Commons CC-BY-NC
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