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
Image released via Creative Commons CC-BY-NC
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