Monkey stamp
Unknown Artist
13th–16th century
Medium
Ceramic
Classification
Ceramics-Implements
Culture
Aztec
Department
Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Museum Purchase, 1900
Accession Number
00.5.1165
Tags
Art Historical Context
This charming *Monkey Stamp*, crafted by an unknown Aztec artist between the 13th and 16th centuries, the ingenuity of Mesoamerican ceramics. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of Arts of Africa, Oceania, the Americas, this small ceramic implement—acquired through museum purchase in 190—features a lively monkey motif, a creature often celebrated in Aztec art for its playful energy and symbolic ties to the natural world. Aztec ceramics like this stamp were more than mere tools; they blended utility with artistry during the height of the Aztec Empire in central Mexico. Likely...