The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 15, 2025

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

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

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.
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 291 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. 291 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. 394 archive.org
    Kathman, Barbara A. A Cleveland Bestiary. Cleveland, OH; Cleveland Museum of Art, 1981. Mentioned: p. 33, p. 62; Reproduced: p. 37
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: p. 10 archive.org
  • A Cleveland Bestiary. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 15-December 16, 1981).
    Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art; October 14 - December 9, 1981. "A Cleveland Beastiary." Cat. no. 30, listed page 62, no repr.
    Year in Review (1964). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 8, 1964-January 31, 1965).
  • {{cite web|title=Male Dog|url=false|author=|year=200 BCE–300 CE|access-date=15 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1964.37