Standing Male Figure
Artist
Unknown
Datecirca 200 BCE–300 CE
MediumCeramic with red, white, and black slip paint
Dimensionsheight, width, and depth: 21 5/8 × 11 1/2 × 6 in. (54.9 × 29.2 × 15.2 cm)
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. S. J. Levin
Object numberG.58.8.1
On View
On viewSculptures such as this one were created as tomb offerings and may have represented the deceased's relatives or ancestors. The people of Nayarit dug deep shaft tombs to house the dead. Multiple skeletons found in the large chambers of shaft tombs suggest that each tomb may have been a family crypt. Here a male warrior holds a wide-blade weapon in one hand and a birdlike image in the other. His loincloth includes a conch shell ornament, a costume element frequently worn by this type of warrior figure.Published References"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums," The Art Quarterly 21, no. 2 (January-March 1958), 216, illus. 217.
J[ames] B. B[yrnes], "A Pair of Pre-Columbian Figures," North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin 2, no. 1 (Summer 1958), 10-11; also listed in "Registrar's Report of New Acquisitions," 43, illus. (b-w) 10.
Edgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill: published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (b-w) 84.
Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (b-w) 60.
Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Becoming the NCMA: 10 Decades of Collecting, 1924-2022," June 11-August 21, 2022.
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–present. Object Rights Statement
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