Storyteller

100–800 CE

Ceramist unknown (Jalisco)
Ameca Valley, Jalisco, Mexico

This energetic figure looks like he is about to tell a really interesting story. Unfortunately, what he sought to communicate is lost to time. In ancient west Mexico, such ceramic figures were used in life and ultimately interred in shaft tombs. Although West Mexican art has at times been overshadowed by Olmec, Maya, and Aztec art, it became popular among US collectors in the mid-20th century. Chicago has been a center for collecting West Mexican art and today the Art Institute stewards many pieces from these important ceramic traditions.

Status: On View, Gallery 161
Department: Arts of the Americas

Culture: Jalisco
Title: Storyteller
Place: Jalisco state (Object made in:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 100 CE–800 CE
Medium: Earthenware and slip
Dimensions: 53.1 × 54.5 × 27.3 cm (20 15/16 × 21 1/2 × 10 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Bequest of Ruth Falkenau Fund in memory of her parents
Reference Number: 1989.83
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/73795/manifest.json

Richard Townsend, ed., Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1998), 278, 287, cat. 119 (ill.).
Richard Townsend with Elizabeth Pope, Indian Art of the Americas at the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 2016), 136–137, cat. 104 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago’s Dream, A World’s Treasure: the Art Institute, 1893-1993, Nov. 1, 1993–Jan. 9, 1994, cat. (not in cat.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past, Sept. 5–Nov. 22, 1998, cat. 119; traveled to Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Dec. 20, 1998–Mar. 29, 1999.

Private collector, Dallas, TX, from 1968 [signed statement, Feb. 24, 1989; copy in curatorial object file]; sold to Claudia Giangola and John Menser, Ancient Art of the New World, New York, by 1988 [invoice no. 1870, item 1-1148, Jan. 23, 1989; incoming permanent receipt RX17587, Dec. 28, 1988; copy in curatorial object file]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1989.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.