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Details / Information for Male Dog

Male Dog

200 BCE–300 CE
earthenware with burnished red slip
Overall: 39.5 x 20.8 x 47.8 cm (15 9/16 x 8 3/16 x 18 13/16 in.)
Cornelia Blakemore Warner Fund 1964.37
Location: 233 Mesoamerican and Intermediate Region
Public Domain
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Description

One of the best-known subjects of West Mexican tomb sculpture is the native hairless dog, which is shown naturalistically-as here-but also wearing a human mask, signaling complex meanings.These meanings are not well-understood, but like later Mesoamericans, West Mexicans may have believed that dogs served as guides or guards in the underworld realm of the dead. For the living, they also served as food.
Red earthenware sculpture of a dog with a round body, crouching and looking up with its mouth open, showing the dark interior of the sculpture and with incisor teeth bridging the gap. The dog has pointy ears, the right ear and specks of the face worn away into a pasty, roughened beige contrasting with the smooth sheen of the rest of the body.

Male Dog

200 BCE–300 CE

West Mexico, Colima, Comala style

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