FORT WORTH, Texas — The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth announced Wednesday it has acquired a jade Olmec sculpture, one of the most renowned of ancient Mesoamerica.
Standing Figure Holding a Were-Jaguar Baby, dated between 900 and 300 B.C., was an icon of Olmec civilization, and has been studied by Olmec scholars since the mid-20th century.
The acquisition was in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the museum's Renzo Piano Pavilion, where the sculpture will be displayed beginning Dec. 15, 2023.
“Thanks to the foresight and generosity of collector Alastair Martin, this astonishingly beautiful masterpiece of Olmec jade carving has been on display for the public for more than 75 years, studied by scholars and appreciated by general museum visitors,” said Eric Lee, director of the Kimbell Art Museum, in a statment. “I am incredibly pleased to have the opportunity to continue that tradition. By acquiring one of the most important cultural touchstones of Olmec art for the Kimbell, we can assure that it will forever remain on view, available to all who want to appreciate its beauty and cultural significance.”
The 8.5-inch tall jewel-green statuette shows an unclothed Olmec ruler standing up, holding an infant were-jaguar, a mythical creature which was part-human and part-jaguar.
"Effigies such as this, carved from precious materials, were empowered objects and may have been animated in rituals or deposited in burials or caches with other magical objects in sacred precincts," the museum wrote in a statement. "The ruler’s left leg, missing from the mid-thigh, may have been broken in such a ritual."
The sculpture will join a number of works at the museum representing the ancient Teotihuacan, Maya, Zapotec, and Aztec cultures of Mesoamerica.
“Few Olmec objects have the history, aesthetic quality, and iconographic significance of this superb jade figure,” said Jennifer Casler Price, the Kimbell’s senior curator of Asian, African, and ancient American art, in a statement. “I am absolutely thrilled that we are able to add this incredibly eloquent sculpture to the ancient American collection.”