#smiling figure

[efikeff]

"Smiling" (sonrientes) Figure, Remojadas Culture, (Veracruz, contemporary Mexico, Mesoamerica), 7th–8th century, Ceramic with colour, 47.5 x 29.9 x 15.9 cm, The Metropolitan Museum.

[themuseumwithoutwalls]

MWW Artwork of the Day (7/6/19) Classic Mayan period (Mesoamerican, c. 250-900 CE) Sonriente ("Smiling" Figure)(c. 7th-8th c. CE) Ceramic figurine, 47.5 x 29.9 x 15.9 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest)

Smiling figures (called sonrientes in Spanish) are one of the most intriguing examples of Mesoamerican ceramic artistry, part of a long-standing tradition of hollow ceramic figures produced in south-central Veracruz throughout the Precolumbian period. The animated expression that is responsible for their name is surprising in Mesoamerican art, where emotion of any kind is rarely depicted.

Nude from the waist up, this sonriente wears a cap and skirt covered in geometric patterns, circular earspools, and a beaded necklace and bracelet. He raises his right hand as though in greeting and clutches a gourd rattle in his left. Musicians are depicted playing similar rattles in ceremonial scenes from both Veracruz and the Maya area. Thin red lines drawn below the eyes and the chin, and traces of the black tar paint often used in the region on the chest represent body paint or tattooing. Additional traces of black paint on the skirt indicate a two-dimensional design once overlaid that in low relief. (from the MMA catalog)

[yeshistoryofart]

"Smiling" Figure 7th-8th century Mexico Ceramic