Olmec
Mexico
Seated figure with harpy eagle crest, 1000500 B.C.
Ceramic, black bitumen
12 3/8 x 9 1/8 x 7 inches
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, The Adolph D. and
Wilkins C. Williams Fund, 80.327
Although figures like this one seem to represent
babies with their plump, rounded features and chubby bodies, they
likely had a deeper symbolic meaning to their Olmec creators.
Indicator of this special status are the harpy eagle crest headdress
and earspools worn by this figure. Potentially high-status objects,
these ceramics have been found over a wide area and must have
been traded over great distances. Their exact significance is
unknown, but may be an idealized representation of the creation
of humans by the gods, of supernatural half-human, half-jaguar
creatures, or of fertility figures.