Model Depicting a Ritual Center

CC0 Public Domain Designation

Arts of the Americas

100–800 CE

Ceramist unknown (Nayarit)
Ixtlán del Río, Nayarit, Mexico

In West Mexico, chiefdoms and statelike societies flourished between A.D. 100 and 800. Advanced agriculture, extensive trade routes, and elaborate religious festivals echoed developments in other regions of ancient Mesoamerica. The distinctive West Mexican sculptures were often included as offerings in tombs that illustrate important themes of life and the afterlife. This model of a circular ceremonial center depicts houselike temples, populated by flute players, a drummer, conch-shell trumpeters, dancers, women with children, and animals. A masked figure—likely the ruler—stands atop the central stepped pyramid.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of the Americas

Culture: Nayarit
Title: Model Depicting a Ritual Center
Place: Nayarit 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 pigment
Dimensions: 21.3 × 35.6 × 33.8 cm (8 7/16 × 14 1/16 × 13 5/16 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Ethel and Julian Goldsmith
Reference Number: 1989.639
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/75238/manifest.json

Hasso von Winning and Olga Hammer, Anecdotal Sculpture of Ancient West Mexico, exh. cat. (The Ethnic Arts Council of Los Angeles, 1972), 59, cat. 41 (ill.).
Richard Townsend, The Art of Tribes and Early Kingdoms: Selections from Chicago Collections, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1983), 31, fig. 45 (ill.).
Richard Townsend, ed., Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1998), 109, cat. 183 (ill.).
Mireille Holsbeke and Karel Arnaut, eds., Offerings for a New Life: Funerary Images from pre-Columbian West Mexico, exh. cat. (Antwerp Ethnographic Museum, 1998), 18 (ill.).
Richard Townsend and Kathleen Bickford Berzock, “The Art Institute of Chicago New Galleries” Tribal Arts XVI-1/62 (Winter 2001): 65, fig. 16 (ill.).
James N. Wood, Treasures from The Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 2000), 28 (ill.).
Jean Sousa, Looking at Art Together: A Parent Guide (Art Institute of Chicago, 2002), 59 (ill.).
Richard Townsend with Elizabeth Pope, Indian Art of the Americas at the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 2016), 150-151, cat. 123 (ill.).
Brigitte Faugère and Christopher Beekman, eds. Anthropomorphic Imagery in the Mesoamerican Highlands (University Press of Colorado, 2020), cover (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, The Art of Tribes and Early Kingdoms: Selections from Chicago Collections, Jan. 12–Mar. 4, 1984, no cat. no.
Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past, Sept. 5–Nov. 22, 1998, cat. 183; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Dec. 20, 1998–Mar. 29, 1999.

Ethel Goldsmith (1919–2017; born Frank) and Julian Goldsmith (1918–1999), Chicago, Nov. 1960 [Goldsmith Collection document; Oct. 1990; copy in curatorial object file]; given 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.