Storyteller Figure

100–800 CE

Jalisco
Ameca Valley, Jalisco, Mexico

Ceramic figures in energetic poses and with lively expressions were made in the Ameca Valley, Jalisco. Like other West Mexican works of art, they were intended as offerings in tombs. The range of subjects depicted by these sculptures includes gesturing individuals whose hand positions communicated well-established meanings. This sign language has yet to be described and interpreted, but such excited figures may well be recounting legends or myths.

Status: On View, Gallery 136
Department: Arts of the Americas

Culture: Jalisco
Title: Storyteller Figure
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: Ceramic and pigment
Dimensions: 55.9 × 55.9 cm (22 × 22 in.)
Credit Line: Estate of Ruth Falkenau
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. (Chicago: The 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 (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.

Educator Resource Packet: Storyteller Figure

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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.