Playful Olmec Pottery Seated Baby

Pre-Columbian, Mexico, Olmec culture, ca. 10th to 6th century BCE. A playful terracotta Olmec baby figure, with legs akimbo and both hands raised as if experiencing the startle reflex (also called Moro reflex) of a newborn. The infant is a male (with delineated genitalia), has a full, fleshy belly with an incised navel, and is adorned with a bas relief glyph band over the chest and a beaded necklace. His characteristically oversized and misshapened head presents an expressive face - with slanted, almond-shaped eyes, arched brows, a petite nose, large ears, and a full-lipped were jaguar mouth. A wonderful Olmec figure, replete with a characteristic plump body and baby face features. Size: 4.25" W x 4.125" H (10.8 cm x 10.5 cm)

For an interesting article about Olmec baby figures see "Olmec Babies as Early Portraiture in the Americas" by James Doyle, Assistant Curator, Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, Metropolitan Museum of Art, April 17, 2015.

Provenance: ex private Kalman collection, Arcadia, California, USA, acquired before 2000

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#150174
Condition Report: Minute nicks to ears and nose. Left arm, right forearm and right foot restored. Two firing holes on the back of the head and the back. Nice deposits grace the surface.