Head Fragment
c. 900–300 BCE
- Medium
- jadeite
- Classification
- Jade
- Dimensions
- Overall: 7.4 x 6.2 x 5 cm (2 15/16 x 2 7/16 x 1 15/16 in.)
- Culture
- Mesoamerica, Mexico, Olmec
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Art of the Americas
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
This sensual head fragment may come from a seated or standing figure like those shown nearby, though much larger. The carving is exceptionally fine, from the slight under-eye puffiness to the delineation of the fleshy lips and the teeth. The profile face of supernatural being is incised just in front of each ear, perhaps indicating that the subject had special power.
