Seated Figure with vessel

Early artists throughout the region of West Mexico crafted ceramic sculptures of individuals, including some rendered with signs of aging or physical anomalies. This clay sculpture depicts a seated figure in an exceptionally hunched-over position with a wide chest and rounded, broad shoulders. It is modeled with a protruding nose and thinly incised eyes, mouth, and voluminous hairstyle, with disproportionately thin arms compared to its bulky physique. The left arm is placed on the arched knees while the slender, right hand is raised to hold a decorated serving vessel atop the figure's back. Cream slip has been used to detail the figure’s adornments, which include rounded ear spools, a nose ornament, and beaded necklace. A thin cream line was applied along the waist and feet to suggest a garment and footwear, but the precise dress and physiognomic features of this sculpture remain unclear. A carved vertical depression and cream slip have been applied to create curvilinear markings along the figure’s arched back. These details reveal a visible spinal column and ribcage, as if the hunched figure had lost its flesh and is shown in a frail or emaciated state.

The sculpture may represent a person with an exaggerated curvature of the spine.

Throughout ancient Mesoamerican mythology, individuals with physical anomalies were considered powerful figures who accompany the dead to the underworld. Among the Late Postclassic (1348–1520 CE) Tlaxcalan communities of Central Mexico, when rulers passed, their wives, enslaved persons, and others with exceptional characteristics were buried with the deceased (Herrera y Tordesillas 1726-1730, 1:165). It is probable that figures such as this one were sculpted in clay to act as a substitutive conduit, traversing the liminal space between the earth and underworld and acting as offerings in its communion with the interred.

Lagunillas style ceramics are known for their smooth, burnished surfaces and painted, rather than modeled, ornamentation. Although hunched and emaciated figures are a diagnostic type created in this region, other examples are sculpted and painted with highly individualized features (see MMA: 1999.272.1,.2). Lagunillas ceramics are often made using a local clay of either orange or grey hues with applied cream or brown paint. This figure would have been modeled by hand, using techniques of coiling and beating of malleable clay to produce its features. The artist would have used a stylus to cut into the surface, revealing the details of this figure's face and hair. Like many Lagunillas figures, this example is highly burnished, a process by which clay sculptors carefully rubbed the surface with a smooth stone or other abrasive materials to produce its luminous luster.

Figures like this one were part of funerary assemblages placed in shaft tombs. These are burial structures cut deep into the earth, consisting of a series of cavernous tunnels and adjacent chambers for several interred individuals. They were likely multigenerational, with ceramic offerings representing vital vignettes to accompany the deceased into the afterlife. During this period, this was a shared cultural process of ritual interment throughout what are now the western coastal states of Jalisco, Nayarit and Colima.

Brandon Agosto, 2026

Further reading:

Beekman, Christopher S., and Robert S. Pickering. Shaft Tombs and Figures in West Mexican Society: A Reassessment. Edited by Christopher S. Beekman, and Robert S. Pickering. Tulsa: Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, 2016.

Butterwick, Kristi. Heritage of Power: Ancient Sculpture From West Mexico: The Andrall E. Pearson Family Collection. New York, New Haven, London: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004.

Herrera y Tordesillas, Antonio De. Historia general de los hechos de los castellanos en las islas i tierra firme del mar océano. 4 Volumes, Madrid: 1726–1730.

Linné, Sigvald. "Humpbacks in Ancient America." Ethnos 8(4) (1943):161-186

Meighan, Clement W., and H.B. Nicholson. "The Ceramic Mortuary Offerings of Prehistoric West Mexico: An Archaeological Perspective." In: Sculpture of Ancient West Mexico. Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima. A Catalogue of the Proctor Stafford Collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Revised edition, by Michael Kan, Clement Meighan, and H. B. Nicholson, pp. 29–67. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1989.

Pickering, Robert B., and Maria Teresa Cabrero. "Mortuary Practices in the Shaft-Tomb Region." In: Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past, edited by Richard Townsend, pp. 71–87, Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1998.

Pickering Robert B., Cheryl Smallwood-Roberts, Thomas Gilcrease, Institute of American History and Art. West Mexico. Ritual and Identity. Tulsa, Oklahoma: Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, 2016.

Townsend, Richard, ed. Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1998.

Wilson Norwood, Beth. "Ancestors in Clay" A Case for Portraiture in Lagunillas Style E Figurines," pp. 195–205. Edited by Christopher S. Beekman, and Robert S. Pickering. Tulsa: Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, 2016.