The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 6, 2023

"Horned" Male (Dwarf?)

100 BC-AD 300

West Mexico, Colima, Comala style

(200 BC-AD 300)

Earthenware with colored slips, black burial deposits

Overall: 41.5 x 24.9 x 24.7 cm (16 5/16 x 9 13/16 x 9 3/4 in.)

Fiftieth anniversary gift of the Womens Council in honor of the Museum's Seventy-fifth anniversary 1991.20

Location

233 Mesoamerican and Intermediate Region

Fun Fact

This figure’s “horn” may be the spire of a conch shell, a reference to fertility.

Description

This figure’s concentrated, otherworldly expression is emphasized by the hornlike element strapped to its forehead. This "horn" may be the spire of a conch shell, which comes from water and, therefore, refers to fertility—likely an important ritual concern of West Mexican chiefs. The element also could represent the "horn of power" worn in some areas of the world by shamans, the spiritual leaders and healers of small, non-industrial societies.

Provenance
1991-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Turner, Evan H., Alan Chong, Henry Hawley, Jane Glaubinger, Tom E. Hinson, Henry John Drewal, Margaret Young-Sánchez, Stanislaw J. Czuma, J. Keith Wilson, Michael R. Cunningham, Lawrence M. Berman, Ariellé P. Kozloff, Renate Eikelmann, Michael J. Miller, Anne E. Wardwell, and Bruce Robertson. "Notable Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 3 (1991) p. 116 www.jstor.org
Townsend, Richard F., and Patricia Rieff Anawalt. Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past. New York, N.Y.: Thames and Hudson, 1998. pp. 178-79, fig. 18y, Cat. no. 39
Exhibition history

Notable Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 15, 1991).

Signs of Affection: Gifts Honoring the Museum's 75th Anniversary. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 27, 1992-January 3, 1993).

The Art and Archaeology of Ancient West Mexico. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (September 26-December 5, 1998); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (January 9-March 2, 1999).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1991.20