About the Artwork
This powerful maskette would have been worn by an Olmec god-king as a pendant during life and buried with him at death. In this culture jadite was valued above gold as a material, for its rich blue green color symbolized all-important, life-sustaining water. The snarling mouth and babylike features are associated with a rain-giving water deity. It is rare to find a piece of gem-quality jadite this large, so the maskette would have been a highly prestigious, potent ornament suitable for a king.
Maskette
between 900 and 600 BCE
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Precolumbian
Olmec
Jade
Overall: 4 3/4 × 3 5/8 × 2 1/2 inches (12.1 × 9.2 × 6.4 cm)
Sculpture
Indigenous Americas
Founders Society Purchase, W. Hawkins Ferry Fund
1985.42
This work is in the public domain.
Markings
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Provenance
Peter Wray. 1985-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
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Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Suggest FeedbackPublished References
Bulletin of the DIA 62, no. 2 (1985): 6, fig. 3.
“Family Art Game.” DIA Advertising Supplement, Detroit Free Press, May 18, 1986, p. 16 (ill.).
"Recent Acquisitions." African Arts 20, no. 2 (1987): 65 (ill.).
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Olmec, Precolumbian, Maskette, between 900 and 600 BCE, jade. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, W. Hawkins Ferry Fund, 1985.42.
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