Elongated Mask Ornament
c. 900–300 BCE
- Medium
- greenstone
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- Overall: 13.8 cm (5 7/16 in.)
- Culture
- Mesoamerica, Mexico, Olmec
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Art of the Americas
- Credit line
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James B. Wadhams in memory of Miss Helen Humphreys
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Small masks made of precious media-especially greenstone, which Mesoamerican people valued above most other materials-likely served as elements of Olmec elite regalia. Such masks commonly depict human faces, although it is unclear whether the creature shown on this unusual example is human or supernatural. It may be a late work.
