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Pair of Seated Figures
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
This couple-extremely fine examples of their kind-may commemorate the marriage of an important person, such as a chief, but could also represent siblings of a chiefly family. Whatever their relationship, their unity is conveyed by their physical similarities, including their jewelry, which marks high social station. The female is unusual in nursing an infant, likely a reference to generational renewal and the continuation of noble bloodlines. The significance of the male’s activity-beating a turtle-shell drum- is not understood.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit linePair of Seated Figures, 100 BCE–300 CE. Mexico, Nayarit. Ceramic; average: 52.3 x 30.5 x 29.5 cm (20 9/16 x 12 x 11 5/8 in.); part 2: 56 x 31.8 x 30.5 cm (22 1/16 x 12 1/2 x 12 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Clara Taplin Rankin, 1998.83
