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Olmec Jade Sculpture of a Standing Were-Jaguar - PF.0327, Origin: Mexico, Circa: 1200 BC to 600 BC, Dimensions: 8.25" (21.0cm) high, Catalogue: V1, Collection: Pre-Columbian, Style: Olmec, Medium: Jade. The powerful snarling expression that immediately focuses our gaze shows this to be a jaguar man, a hybrid of human and beast that figures prominently in Olmec cosmology. It is as if the Olmecs understood some part of us all that is not quite civilized, something primal, bestial, that stretches back to before recorded time. We respond to such a masterpiece at some deep visceral level that transcends the purely aesthetic. It awakens emotions we were perhaps unaware of.
Antiquities
Ancient Unknown
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