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Veracruz, Classic

Figure of a Woman in Ceremonial Dress

700–900
Ceramic

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In the collection of Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago · as of July 2026

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FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

In the afterlife, it was the role of deceased noble ancestors to communicate with the deified forces of nature on behalf of their people. Presented as offerings at ancestral shrines, mold-made figures of this kind were sometimes reshaped while the clay was still moist to give them more individualized facial features.

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