Kneeling bearded figure
CA0358 · Visual art · Mesoamerica; approximately 900–400 BCE
Historical / contextual reference
Photograph of the specific selected museum object; identity checked by object ID and accession.
Credit: Olmec artist(s) / The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gift of Stephanie Bernheim, in memory of Leonard H. Bernheim Jr., and in celebration of the Museum's 150th Anniversary, 2017
Rights: Public domain; Met Open Access
A small stone man kneels with his hands placed on his knees. Carefully modelled limbs and a bearded face make the body feel weighty despite the object's modest scale. The Metropolitan Museum identifies the material as serpentine with pigment and dates the work to approximately 900–400 BCE. Those facts distinguish it from the many greenstone objects loosely described as jade. The compact posture invites close looking rather than the distant viewing associated with a colossal monument. Future audiences could use the figure to compare different ways of giving a human body presence in stone, while retaining the important limit that neither the maker's name nor a complete account of the represented person's identity is established here.
Why preserve it: Curatorial interpretation: It encourages attention to small-scale sculptural skill without requiring a famous named sitter or maker.
Keep in mind: Do not call the material jade or invent a royal, shamanic or portrait identity. Use accession 2017.443 to distinguish this specific figure.