Figure of a Woman in Ceremonial Dress
Veracruz, Classic
700–900
Medium
Ceramic
Dimensions
H.: 35.6 cm (14 in.)
Classification
earthenware
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
110317
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
In the afterlife, it was the role of deceased noble ancestors to communicate with the deified forces of nature on behalf of their people. Presented as offerings at ancestral shrines, mold-made figures of this kind were sometimes reshaped while the clay was still moist to give them more individualized facial features.