Detail View: The AMICA Library: Human Figure
|
AMICA ID:
|
MMA_.1979.206.695
|
|
AMICA Library Year:
|
2002
|
|
Object Type:
|
Decorative Arts and Utilitarian Objects
|
|
Description:
|
The ivory half-figures or torsos made during the late centuries of the first millennium B.C. were often rendered with such a minimum of detail that they remain enigmatic to the most insightful of viewers. Armless and legless, with faces reduced to essential elements, the figures are part of a larger group of works that have been called dolls by some, ceremonial or shamanistic objects by others. Most frequently they represent females. In Siberia during the nineteenth century, armless female figures were house guardians and spirits of illness; it has been suggested that in ancient times they may have had a similar role. The ivory torsos are known primarily from the region of the St. Lawrence and Punuk islands in the Bering Sea between Alaska and Siberia .
|
|
Creator Nationality:
|
North American; Native American; Aleutian; Bering
|
|
Creator Name-CRT:
|
Old Bering Sea peoples
|
|
Title:
|
Human Figure
|
|
View:
|
Principal view
|
|
Creation Date:
|
2nd century B.C.?1st century A.D.
|
|
Creation Start Date:
|
-200
|
|
Creation End Date:
|
99
|
|
Materials and Techniques:
|
Ivory (walrus)
|
|
Style or Period:
|
Old Bering Sea (Okvik)
|
|
Creation Place:
|
United States, Alaska
|
|
Dimensions:
|
H. 3 3/4 in. (9.5 cm)
|
|
AMICA Contributor:
|
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
|
|
Owner Location:
|
New York, New York
|
|
ID Number:
|
1979.206.695
|
|
Credit Line:
|
The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979
|
|
Copyright:
|
Copyright ? 2002 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. All rights reserved.
|
|
Rights:
|
|
|
Related Image Identifier Link:
|
MMA_.h1_1979.206.695.tif
|