The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Blotchy green and brown-orange, albitite rock sculpture of a seated figure with a lanky body and head the size of their torso, face rectangular and mouth open. They cross their right leg against the left leg, which hangs down before cutting off at the pedestal base. Resting their hands on their knees, the left holds an object wrapped around the knuckles of the closed fist and the right a teardrop shaped bundle with triangular etchings.

Seated Figure

c. 900–300 BCE

Mesoamerica, Mexico, Olmec

albitite
Overall: 11 x 6.2 x 3.9 cm (4 5/16 x 2 7/16 x 1 9/16 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1941.390
Location: 233 Mesoamerican and Intermediate Region

Description

Like their contemporaries, the Olmec made figurines but of greenstone rather than clay. This one, whose identity and use are mysterious, holds objects that may address nature's fertility: on the right, perhaps a cut conch shell that refers to water, and on the left, what may be a plant or a bundle of green feathers that symbolizes new vegetation.
  • Milliken, William. "Jade Figurine in the Olmec Style." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 29, no. 6 (June 1942): 100. Mentioned: p. 100 25140995
    Milliken, William. "Pre-Columbian Jade and Hard Stone." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 36, no. 4 (April 1949): 53-55. Mentioned: p. 53 www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 375 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 290 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 290 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 392 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: p. 6 archive.org
  • Los Angeles, CA: The Los Angeles County Museum of Art; September 26, 2010- January 9, 2011. San Francisco, CA: The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; February 19- May 30, 2011. "Olmec: Collossal Masterworks of Ancient Mexico."
    The Art of the Olmec Civilization. National Gallery of Art (organizer) (June 30-October 20, 1996).
    The Olmec World: Ritual and Rulership. Princeton University Art Museum (organizer) (December 16, 1995-March 3, 1996); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (April 7-June 9, 1996).
    Pre-Columbian Art of the Gulf States. Lowe Art Museum, Miami, FL (organizer) (January 11-February 11, 1973).
    Coral Gables, FL: Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami; January 11-February 11, 1973. "Pre- Colombian Art of the Gulf States." exh. cat. no. 43, repr. p. 23.
    New York, NY: The Museum of Modern Art. "Twenty Centuries of Mexican Art." exh. cat. no. 2, p. 32, exh. cat. no. 3, p. 34.
    Paris, France: Galerie Charpentier; March 15- May 15, 1959. exh. cat. no. 18. The Netherlands: The Hague; June1- July 31, 1959. Berlin, Germany: Academie der Kunst; October 3- November 22, 1959. Circulating exhibition of "Pre- Columbian Art from Mexico and Central America."
    Munich, Germany: Haus der Kunst; October 17-December 12, 1958. exh. cat. no. 326, repr. black and white pl. 40a. Zurich, Switzerland; Kunsthaus; January 1- February 28, 1959. exh. cat. no. 31, repr. black and white pl. 8a.
    Palm Beach, FL: The Society of the Four Arts; January 10 - February 1,1953. "Pre-Columbian Art: The Native Art of America Before the Conquest." Cat. no. 2, no repr.
    Cincinnati, OH: The Taft Museum; October 6-November 19, 1950. "Ancient American Jade and Gold." exh. cat. no. 1.
    Art of the Americas. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 9, 1945-January 6, 1946).
    Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art; November 9, 1945-January 6, 1946. "Art of the Americas." repr. in catalogue, black and white, p. 29.
    Toledo, OH: The Museum of Art; January 1944. "The Ancient Art of the North American Continent."
    Art of the Americas. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 19-April 11, 1943).
  • {{cite web|title=Seated Figure|url=false|author=|year=c. 900–300 BCE|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1941.390