Not Currently On View in Intersections

Object Name: Figure

Artist: Unknown

Culture: Olmec

Place of Origin: Central Mexico

Date/Era: Pre-Classic, 1000 – 500 B.C.E.

Medium/Materials: Jade

Dimensions: H: 18.0 cm, W: 7.5 cm, D: 3.0 cm (H: 7.1 in, W: 2.9 in, D: 1.2 in)

Credit Line: Fowler Museum at UCLA. Gift of Mr. Harry M. Brittenham.

Accession Number: X85.864

Arts identified as Olmec have been found in present-day Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, and they range in size from portable carvings to monumental sculptures. Many artists chose to carve figures, masks, and other smaller objects in a variety of hard greenish stone, including jadeite and serpentine, which were valued for their strength, color, and translucence.

Source: Gallery text, Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives, 2006.

See also: Marla C. Berns, World Arts, Local Lives: The Collections of the Fowler Museum at UCLA. Fowler Museum, Los Angeles, 2014.