Vessel in the Form of a Seated Female Figure

Culture: Zapotec
Period: Early Classic period, 250 BCE–600 CE
Date: c.250–600 CE
Material: Ceramic
from: Oaxaca state, Mexico, North and Central America
Classification: Ceramics, containers
Collection: Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas
Current Location: On View, Gallery 114
Dimensions: 14 3/8 x 12 5/8 x 10 13/16 in. (36.5 x 32 x 27.5 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Morton D. May
Rights: Public Domain
Object Number: 305:1978

NOTES

This beautifully naturalistic portrayal of a young woman serves as the front of an open container, which may have held food or other supplies for the deceased in an underground tomb. Seated cross-legged with eyes staring straight ahead, the figure illustrates the clothing and jewelry worn by elite Zapotec women. She wears a jeweled necklace and elaborate ear spools, indications of her high status. The artist has shown the woman's cape as it would have fallen over her body and has rendered the ornamental border in fine detail. The wrapped yarn headdress is like those still worn by Yalalag women of Oaxaca today.

Provenance

- 1969
Everett Rassiga Inc., New York, NY, USA

1969 - 1978
Morton D. May (1914-1983), St. Louis, MO, purchased from Everett Rassiga [1]

1978 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, given by Morton D. May [2]

Notes:
[1] An invoice dated January 28, 1969 from Everett Rassiga Inc. to Morton D. May documents this purchase, listed as "Six Monte Alban Vessels" [with 175:1979, 178:1979, 179:1979, 180:1979, 1226:1983]; a shipping record dated March 7, 1969 identifies the objects included in this sale [May Archives, Saint Louis Art Museum].

[2] A letter dated September 29, 1978 from Morton D. May to James N. Wood, director of the Saint Louis Art Museum, includes the offer of this object as part of a larger donation [SLAM document files]. Minutes of the Acquisitions Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, December 13, 1978.

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