The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Plate with Supernatural Being

Plate with Supernatural Being

900–600 BCE
stone (probably steatite [soapstone])
Overall: 4 x 16.4 cm (1 9/16 x 6 7/16 in.)
J.H. Wade Trust Fund 2021.131
Location: 232 Andean

Did You Know?

The supernatural figure on this small plate may be an apotheosis of the life-death cycle.

Description

This plate is carved with a feline supernatural sacrificer who holds a severed human head in its clawed paws. The diagonal clusters of plant foliage at the figure’s shoulders and hips imply that death is tied to the earth’s fertility, one being a precondition for the other. The figure, therefore, may be an apotheosis of the life-death cycle.
  • Before the late 1960s-1997
    Margrith Brenner, Zurich, Switzerland, sold to Private Collector
    1997-2021
    Private Collector, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2021-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • {{cite web|title=Plate with Supernatural Being|url=false|author=|year=900–600 BCE|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2021.131