Fragmentary Figure

According to attribution records, this exquisite carving was originally owned by Ailes Gilmour Spinden, a Japanese American dancer who was part of Martha Graham’s modern dance company and whose half brother was the famed artist Isamu Noguchi. In 1948, she married the archaeologist, anthropologist, and ethnographer Herbert J. Spinden, who published the classic work A Study of Maya Art (1910). Although the Dumbarton Oaks catalogue files list “Mrs. Herbert Spinden” as the owner on a purchase by V. G. Simkhovitch in 1948, Juan Antonio Murro (personal communication, 2019) has noted that, in a volume devoted to William Spratling, Joan Mark supplied a detailed and contrasting account of its history, even though unfortunately little of this can be directly corroborated, in part due to the very recent death of Michael D. Coe:

Yale archaeologist Michael D. Coe has traced the history of one exceptional object, a blue-green bust of a woman, which was acquired by Spratling, probably in Iguala, then sold to Covarrubias who in turn sold it to the collector and surrealist painter Wolfgang Paalen, who traded it back to Spratling, who sold it again. The bust passed through the hands of yet another owner before being acquired by a New York dealer who sold it for $4,000 in 1948 to Robert Woods Bliss, the founder of the Dumbarton Oaks collection where it rests today (Mark 2000:97)

What is at least clear to me in these two very different accounts is that this diminutive fragment was esteemed as an extremely fine and precious jade already examined and handled by performers, artists, and others in both Mexico and the United States by at least the 1940s.         

Although it has suffered considerable damage, this jewel of Olmec lapidary art is among the most outstanding examples of portable Olmec sculpture. In fact, the bold percussion that separated the bust from the body lends a striking and dramatic air to the piece. The exquisite face remarkably received no damage from what appears to have been intentional and controlled mutilation, recalling the massive flake scars on San Lorenzo Monument 20 and other major Olmec sculptures (see Coe and Diehl 1980:1:330). The curving indentations at both shoulders suggest “bulbs of percussion” from where the bust was fractured from the body. However, according to lithic experts John E. Clark and Gene L. Titmus (personal communication, 1997) these indentations are secondary and occurred after the bust was removed from the body. Clark and Titmus note that the statuette appears to have been first broken across the trunk; from this initial platform, two blows were struck up the body to remove the sides of the torso, shoulders, and arms. A final major blow was made again across the torso, creating a relatively flat base for the bust.

The jade is a soft blue color and highly translucent, with flecks of white inclusions. From the surface breakage, it can be seen that the stone is very fine-grained, a trait of highly translucent jadeite. The polished surface is crazed with minute fracture lines, and although these might appear to be from the sharp blows by which the bust was reduced from a statuette, more than likely this is the original quality of the stone before it was carved. In my personal experience working jadeite, the finest and most translucent stone commonly has such fractures, probably due to the change in pressure when this dense material was uplifted to the earth’s surface from where it formed roughly 20 km below. The only clear evidence of drilling appears in the rather large nostrils, which are joined through the septum. The nostrils contain reddish soil that also adheres to the face and to areas of rougher and deeper breakage. The delicately carved face is covered with fine striations executed by a sharp tool, suggesting that it was not simply ground, but carved by the fine point of a quartz crystal or other tool used for hard-stone incision. Considerable care was exerted in the area of the eyes and brow, which is creased by four diagonal lines. As with PC.B.585, the eyes are composed of V-shaped channels, making it unlikely that they once held inlay. The partly open mouth exposes the upper teeth, with the incisors indicated by fine line incision. Among the more striking traits of this figure is the mane of shoulder-length hair, separated by a deep center part. The filaments of hair are delineated by a firmly controlled series of incised lines: from the same point along the part, pairs of lines run in opposite directions down the sides of the head. These carefully spaced lines continue to the back, but due to the shape of the cranium, some converge as they descend. The coiffure of this figure recalls the long hair on the seated jadeite woman of Mound A-2 at La Venta (Figure 13.1), as well as the fragmentary serpentine statuette in PC.B.010. Elizabeth P. Benson notes, however, that the hair of this figure is somewhat different; rather than radiating out from a point at the crown, as PC.B.010, the hair spreads from a long center part running from forehead to nape. Benson compares this hairstyle to that worn by the Las Limas figure. Along with having similarly parted long hair, the Las Limas Figure wears a loincloth, identifying him as male. According to Benson, “this face is not only biologically possible, but is undoubtedly a portrait” (Benson 1981:100). As she also mentions, the basic identity of this being has been a source of some debate. George Kubler notes that the perceived attitude, personality, and even gender of PC.B.019 can change markedly according to lighting and the angle of perspective. When viewed from slightly below, the face has a supplicatory, almost tender expression that, according to Kubler (1984:11), suggests a singing woman. Face on, however, the figure appears to be male, with an assertive and commanding expression. Although Kubler favors the former position and female interpretation, Benson (1981:99) notes that the angle of the head and the forward position of the left shoulder indicate that the figure was probably seated and leaning forward on the left arm. She compares this posture to the Laguna de los Cerros Monument 11. Still another example is the powerful niche figure of La Venta Altar 4, whose forward-leaning upper body is supported by his left arm (Piña Chán 1989:pl. 68). Among the later Classic Maya, the enthroned king on the magnificent Wall Panel 3 at Piedras Negras strikes a similar pose (Sharer 1994:fig. 5.17). Rather than looking up, PC.B.019 gazes directly ahead, as if it derived from a forceful, forward-leaning enthroned figure. Although it is entirely possible that, as with the later Maya, high offices were not exclusively reserved for men, both the facial features and hairstyle suggest that this bust represents a male Olmec ruler.

Indigenous Art of the Americas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1949–1962

Olmec Art of Ancient Mexico, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., June–October 1996

Olmec: Colossal Masterworks of Ancient Mexico, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California, October 2010–January 2011, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, California, February–May 2011