Additional Images adjacent.

Costumed Figure, On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 358.

This ceramic figurine depicts a standing male wearing a long textured bodysuit and conical headdress. His mouth is open, as if speaking, and he wears an ornament between his eyes. Incised lines on his cheeks may represent wrinkles, indicating he is a mature individual. He wears a belt and loincloth above the bodysuit, as well as a ruffled collar and large round earflares, or ornaments worn in the earlobes (see 1994.35.591a, b for an example of an earflare set, and 1979.206.1047 for individuals wearing earflare assemblages). His pectoral consists of a large round element with a zoomorphic face emerging from the top right corner. He carries a rectangular shield in his left hand; the shield is marked with patterns that probably represent feathers. The right arm of the figurine is broken at the elbow. This figurine is also a whistle; the mouthpiece of the whistle, visible from the sides and back, serves as a third support so that the figurine can stand erect.

This figurine was made from a mold, with individual characteristics added by hand. Fingerprints, remnants of hand modeling, are visible on parts of the headdress, including the right earflare and the fringes on the left side of the individual’s face. The figurine still retains large swaths of paint, indicating the entire surface would once have been brightly colored. Aside from a central vertical strip, the individual’s face is blue. The textured bodysuit is also blue. The pigment on these sections of the figurine is probably “Maya blue,” a distinctive and durable paint made by heating indigo and palygorskite, a mineral found in clay (see Crocodile Rattle, 1979.206.1143, for another example of Maya blue). The section around the individual’s shoulders is slightly faded and less textured than other parts of the figurine, indicating use wear. The individual’s loincloth and the center of his face were painted red. White paint remains on his pectoral, and on the circular elements atop his feet. The figurine is resolutely frontal: the back of the whistle lacks modeling and texture, and its smooth surface is painted red on the bottom and blue on top.