Found Museum Object

Found Museum Object

Picking out a piece of art in the Met Museum and analysis it.

The Museum object I have chosen is the Seated Figure. How much different it is to see it in person compare to the book is astonishing. It is a very detailed piece of artwork.  It dates back to the 12th to the 9th century BC. It’s from the first civilization; the Olmec people from Mexico, Mesoamerica. The medium of the figurine is a ceramic, pigment sculpture that is hollow.

 The Olmec’s were the earliest to produce sophisticated art in Mesoamerica. The Olmec’s Seated Figures is mainly found in Las Bocas which is 5 miles near the village of San Jose. This area is consider to be part of the Olmec’s territory because during the Formative/Pre-classic period they dominated the region in 1500 to 400 BC. They produced many types of seated figures from ceramics. The seated figures is considered to be called the “Las Bocas style” name “after the site, this style was largely defined by the art market in response to a number of unprovenienced antiquities that were being sold by intermediaries in Mexico City.” (“Las Bocas-Style Figurines.” Las Bocas-Style Figurines « Trafficking Culture, traffickingculture.org/encyclopedia/case-studies/las-bocas-figurines/.) The Las Bocas Figuring’s are also called baby-face figure as well because they have infant like faces but with adult like traits. Honestly, I find it very weird but that is what makes it interesting and fun to learn about it.

The style doesn’t seem to fit the Olmec people. The seated figure has slump mouth, chubby cheeks, and long narrow eyes. The style reminds me somewhat of a baby Buda. If I had come across this figure without background knowledge, I would have thought this figurine was from Asia. The Seated figure mostly seated with its legs spread like a split, kneeling, legs crossed, or crouching but the crossed legged posture is the most common one. The babies show no gender when the figures had its legs in a split. There are figures with traditional Olmec garments wrapped around their abdominal area. However, I think the garments weren’t to claim the gender but to show their tradition in their art.

The babies also has symbolic designs on their bodies especially on the back. They were often nude or with vary little clothing wears distinctive headdresses. Others are depicted holding a bowl, child, or some type of object in its hands. The clothing and objects shows no correlation to their traits of being a baby. They can range from tiny to life size babies. Usually they are white or light colored clay. Majority of these babies seem to be happy and healthy babies. A couple of them has been found with jaguar like features around the mouth like the Kunz axe.

Archeologist has unanswered questions of who exactly are these babies? Why babies? and are these elite babies? They believe that these babies could have been famous ruler babies. It may could have been representation of baby and corn connection. Perhaps sculptured lineages. Many possibly can be the reason why these babies were sculptured. Mainly there are three actual possibilities why these baby figures are produced according to archeologist studies.

One can be because of infant sacrifice rituals or ceremonial burials. Since there is evidence of Olmec infant sacrifices researches can see these figurines being ties to the rituals. The other possibly is that these babies could have been supernatural babies since supernatural beings play a big part in Olmec culture and art.

Last possibility I believe is the truest, is that these could have been more of a fetus representation figures. This theory came from a book called Reconsidering Olmec Visual Culture: The Unborn, Women, and Creation by Carolyn Elanine Tate. Although I have not read all of her book, I believe it is a progress into understanding the Olmec psyche through the seated figures. She compares medical representations of unborn babies or fetuses specifically 10 weeks old to the figurines. The study finds are astonishing.

While digging in Olmec area, the scholars have also found a significant amount of women figurines with umbilical cords, wombs, and other motherly figurines. This can be a close connection with the baby fetus figurines. Carolyn Tate ground breaking study demonstrates that these women, and fetuses’ portable imagery are to show women and pregnancies beings playing a prominent role in the Olmec societies. These figurines sheds light to the female shamans practices of birthing during that time period.

Since there were no writings from the Olmec’s, the theory was turned to experts of obstetricians, gynecologists, neonatologists, primatologists, and embryologist to help with the theory. The experts claimed that the features and proportions of the figurines shows close connection to detail of the anatomy of a fetus. “These sculptures have deeply flexed legs and a head-to-body ratio of about 1:3 or 1:4. These proportional ratios are not normal for adult humans, but are for a fetus of 12-30 weeks” (PARI Newsletter, www.mesoweb.com/pari/publications/news_archive/30/olmec_sculpture.html.)

The main detail connection was the head. The head of the baby figure was relatively smaller to the body just whole a fetus would have. The developmental stages of a human fetus face show similar features on Olmec seated figure sculptures. “Since fetuses normally have a large head relative to the body, all the images have relatively large heads; however, macrocephaly is probably depicted in several pieces. These abnormalities may be symptomatic of the congenital anomalies that led to the premature births and deaths of the fetuses.” (PARI Newsletter, www.mesoweb.com/pari/publications/news_archive/30/olmec_sculpture.html.)

Some of the babies faces had eyeless features as do a baby fetus at the is not fully grown. At week 24 of the embryo the baby body and head is formed into place along with the eye socket but not the eyes. According to Carolyn E. Tate, “it had typical Olmec features. It is very naturalistic, however, with the broad cranium and small delicate features of an infant. No other figurine illustrates was eyeless” from the Olmec region. (Tate, Carolyn E. Reconsidering Olmec Visual Culture The Unborn, Women, and Creation. University of Texas Press, 2014.) The eyes on many seated figures have eyes that are craved to a point to show that there are eyes that suppose to be there but do not show actual eyeballs. The eyes are shallow and lightly craved.

The seated figure that I have seen in the Metropolitan museum and also in page 45 in The Art of Mesoamerica book wore a helmet. The Metropolitan Museum described the helmet as “An elaborate headpiece is colored red-pink with powdered cinnabar and red ochre that was probably used to anoint the tomb in which this figure was placed.” (“Seated Figure | Olmec | The Met.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, i.e. The Met Museum, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/313327. ) It is similar to the helmets the colossal heads wore. It is depicted that the Olmec that wear helmets were great generals or victorious leaders. In this case these baby figure could have been a portrait sculpture of an Olmec leader’s child. Colossal heads glorified the rulers while they were alive, and commemorated them as revered ancestors after their death(Olmec Civilization - Crystalinks, www.crystalinks.com/olmec.html.). Another reason why the seated figure from the Metropolitan museum wore a helmet could have been a ritual ball player helmet. These ball games were violent and the losers were sacrificed. The scarifying of the ball player could have been the reason why the seated figure was created. It is believed in the Olmec culture that the powers from the sky and earth making the reason why they created symbols on the helmet.

My conclusion of making a connection with the fetus representation figures theory with the specific seated figure from the book and Metropolitan Museum. The baby head is larger than its body, the eye of the babies are “eyeless” and the helmet on the baby helps me understand that it must be an elite or ballplayer baby. My theory is that this specific figurine was a miscarried baby that was suppose to become a known ruler or ballplayer. The baby having eyeless feature shows that the baby could have died in the first early embryo stages of life. Unfortunately, miscarriages is a something that happens in all time periods and cultures. I believe these figures is there way of remembrance as we have tombstones when children are miscarried today.

All in all, the seated figure sculpture from the Olmec’s is an beautiful art piece that is added to the mystery of the Olmec culture. The mystery of what these baby figurines are and who they supposed to represent in the Olmec community still remains unknown. The seated figure has brought experts to scratch their heads but audience of museums to enjoy. After seeing the seated figure, myself and learning more background information about it. I have learned appreciate the seated figure more along with the Olmec culture.