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Figure

150 BCE–100 CE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 360
The ivory half-figures or torsos made during the late centuries of the first millennium BCE were often rendered with such a minimum of detail that they remain enigmatic to the most insightful of viewers. Armless and legless, with faces reduced to essential elements, the figures are part of a larger group of works that have been called dolls by some, ceremonial or shamanistic objects by others. Most frequently they represent females. In Siberia during the nineteenth century, armless female figures were house guardians and spirits of illness; it has been suggested that in ancient times they may have had a similar role. The ivory torsos are known primarily from the region of the St. Lawrence and Punuk islands in the Bering Sea between Alaska and Siberia.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Figure
  • Date: 150 BCE–100 CE
  • Geography: United States, Alaska
  • Culture: Old Bering Sea
  • Medium: Ivory (walrus)
  • Dimensions: H. 3 3/4 × W. 1 1/8 × D. 3/4 in. (9.4 × 2.9 × 1.9 cm)
  • Classification: Bone/Ivory-Sculpture
  • Credit Line: The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979
  • Object Number: 1979.206.695
  • Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Female Figure, Ivory (walrus), Old Bering Sea
Female Figure
Old Bering Sea
2nd century BCE–1st century CE
Winged Object, Ivory (walrus), Old Bering Sea
Winged Object
Old Bering Sea
2nd–3rd century
Bear, Marion Wenaca, Ivory, Inuit
Bear
Marion Wenaca
20th century
Female Figure, Unrecorded Okvik Artist Native American, Walrus ivory, Okvik
Returned to lender
Female Figure
Unrecorded Okvik Artist
2nd–5th century
Polar bear effigy, Unrecorded Ipiutak artist Native American, Ivory, Ipiutak
Returned to lender
Polar bear effigy
Unrecorded Ipiutak artist
ca. 100–600

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