![The Wrestler (Olmec) by DeLange](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/The_Wrestler_%28Olmec%29_by_DeLange.jpg)
''The Wrestler'' is a
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
statuette dating back to between 1500 BCE and 400 BCE, which some believe to be one of the most important sculptures of the
Olmec
The Olmecs () were the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization. Following a progressive development in Soconusco, they occupied the tropical lowlands of the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco. It has been speculated that t ...
culture. The near life-size figure has been praised not only for its realism and sense of energy, but also for its aesthetic qualities.
[Castro-Leal.] Since 1964, the sculpture has been part of the collection of the
Museo Nacional de Antropología
The National Museum of Anthropology ( es, Museo Nacional de Antropología, MNA) is a national museum of Mexico. It is the largest and most visited museum in Mexico. Located in the area between Paseo de la Reforma and Mahatma Gandhi Street with ...
in
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
.
This -high
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. W ...
n statuette was discovered in 1933 by a farmer in
Arroyo Sonso, in the
Mexican state
The states of Mexico are first-level administrative territorial entities of the country of Mexico, which is officially named Mexico, United Mexican States. There are 32 federal entities in Mexico (31 states and the capital, Mexico City, as a sepa ...
of
Veracruz
Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...
near the Rio Uxpanapa and not far from its confluence with the
Coatzacoalcos River
The Coatzacoalcos is a large river that feeds mainly the south part of the state of Veracruz; it originates in the Sierra de Niltepec and crosses the state of Oaxaca in the region of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, flowing for toward the Gulf of M ...
, an area now known as Antonio Plaza.
It is considered unlikely that this sculpture, also known formally as Antonio Plaza Monument 1 as well as ''El Luchador Olmeca'' (Spanish, "the Olmec wrestler") actually represents a
wrestler
Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat sport ...
.
Description
The statuette shows a seated male figure. The legs are delicate and rather diminutive,
[Milbrath, p. 17.] with the right leg bent in front of the body and the left folded backward, almost underneath the body. The arms are upraised and, similar to the legs, bent and asymmetrical. Both hands are clenched. In a position unusual for Olmec art, the shoulders are not situated directly above the hips, but twisted slightly to the right, giving the sculpture a sense of movement that is accentuated by the well-defined muscles and the dynamic positioning of the arms.
The head is bald, but it lacks the highly stylized
cranial deformation
Artificial cranial deformation or modification, head flattening, or head binding is a form of body alteration in which the skull of a human being is deformed intentionally. It is done by distorting the normal growth of a child's skull by applying ...
found in many
Olmec figurines or the wooden busts of
El Manati. The figure wears a mustache and
goatee
A goatee is a style of facial hair incorporating hair on one's chin but not the cheeks. The exact nature of the style has varied according to time and culture.
Description
Until the late 20th century, the term ''goatee'' was used to refer solel ...
, relatively rare features in Olmec sculpture which appear on only a few
relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
s such as
La Venta Monument 3.
The figure wears only a lightly outlined
loincloth
A loincloth is a one-piece garment, either wrapped around itself or kept in place by a belt. It covers the genitals and, at least partially, the buttocks. Loincloths which are held up by belts or strings are specifically known as breechcloth or ...
, leading to the supposition that the statuette originally was dressed in ritualistic clothing that has perished with the passage of time.
[Miller, p. 23.]
This sculpture is fully three-dimensional and presumed to be intended for viewing from all sides: the rear view shows carefully sculpted shoulder blades and a slight naturalistic bulge that is visible above the belt at the hips.
Mary Ellen Miller
Mary Ellen Miller (born December 30, 1952) is an American art historian and academician specializing in Mesoamerica and the Maya.
Academic career
A native of New York State, Miller earned her A.B. degree from Princeton University and her Ph.D. fr ...
finds that "the long diagonal of line of the figure's back and shoulders is as beautiful and commanding as the frontal view".
The figure clearly is more free-flowing than other three-dimensional Olmec sculptures (than, for example,
San Martin Pajapan Monument 1), which frequently are boxy and seemingly "confined" by the medium from which they are carved.
Subject and dating
![Olmec Heartland Overview 4](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Olmec_Heartland_Overview_4.svg)
Despite its name, it is unlikely that the figure represents a wrestler and it is thought that the mustache and goatee connect the subject to the "political-religious hierarchy".
Based on similarities with
Jacques le Moyne
Jacques le Moyne de Morgues ( 1533–1588) was a French artist and member of Jean Ribault's expedition to the New World. His depictions of Native American life and culture, colonial life, and plants are of extraordinary historical importa ...
's painting of a 16th-century
Timucua
The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The var ...
ritual, art historian
Roy Craven
Roy C. Craven (Roy Curtis Craven, Jr.) was (born in Cherokee Bluffs, Alabama on July 29, 1924. - May 30, 1996) He was the founding director of the University Gallery at the University of Florida.
Roy C. Craven authored, co-authored, and co-crea ...
suggests that the figure is that of a
shaman
Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...
, although this proposal has received little notice. Based on the individuality of the piece as well as the detail inherent in the face, it is thought that the sculpture is a portrait.
Being a work of stone without archaeological
context
Context may refer to:
* Context (language use), the relevant constraints of the communicative situation that influence language use, language variation, and discourse summary
Computing
* Context (computing), the virtual environment required to su ...
, it has been difficult to date the sculpture. While some researchers consider it an early work, dated as early as 1200
BCE
Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...
,
others consign it to a period closer to 400 BCE, near the end of the Olmec culture. This dating is based largely on its dissimilarities to earlier formalistic Olmec sculptures.
Michael Coe
Michael Douglas Coe (May 14, 1929 – September 25, 2019) was an American archaeologist, anthropologist, epigrapher, and author. He is known for his research on pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, particularly the Maya, and was among the foremost Mayan ...
simply assigns it to the period between 1500 BCE and 400 BCE.
Authenticity debate
The sculpture falls outside the norms for much of the known Olmec art:
*The sculpture has no overt
iconography
Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...
, in contrast for example to
Las Limas Monument 1
Las Limas Monument 1, also known as the Las Limas figure or the Señor de las Limas, is a greenstone figure of a youth holding a limp were-jaguar baby. Found in the State of Veracruz, Mexico, in the Olmec heartland, the statue is famous for its ...
.
*Whereas seated Olmec figures almost invariably have a broad base, this figure's base is narrow in proportion to its torso.
*The rotation of the upper body is unique in surviving Olmec sculptures, as is its "sensitive detail" such as the foot, complete with arch and rounded toes.
*In their
petrographic
Petrography is a branch of petrology that focuses on detailed descriptions of rocks. Someone who studies petrography is called a petrographer. The mineral content and the textural relationships within the rock are described in detail. The class ...
analysis of Olmec artifacts, Williams and Heizer found that the basalt "is distinctive and . . . no other monument seen by us in Veracruz or Tabasco is made of the same material." They speculate that "it may be an imported piece . . . and its non-local origin is also suggested by the remarkable realism which is displayed".
The art historian Nancy Kelker of Middle Tennessee State University argues that a vague provenance, atypical stone, unusual carving of the back, nonstandard posture, recent publication of scholarly material on Olmec jades, and an urgent interest among Mexicans to find a myth for their origin in antiquity all suggest that it is a modern sculpture. In response to these arguments, the archaeologist Michael Coe and the art historian Mary Miller, both of Yale University, defended the sculpture as authentic, arguing that its similarity to Monument 34 from the Olmec site San Lorenzo, and the fact that we know little about Olmec art make it probable that this is an Olmec masterpiece from antiquity. At a separate time Coe stated that if Heizer felt the sculpture was a fake based on the petrographic analysis, then "something must be wrong with the petrographic analysis!". Susan Milbrath also argues against the possibility of a forgery. Milbrath maintains that its 1933 discovery, well before archaeologists defined Olmec culture or excavated Olmec sites, precludes falsification. She suggests that the ''Wrestler'' represents "a little known aspect of Olmec monumental art".
Appraisals
Superlatives abound in descriptions of this sculpture by archaeologists and art historians alike.
Richard Diehl Richard A. Diehl (born 1940) is an American archaeologist, anthropologist and academic, noted as a scholar of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures. He is particularly renowned for his extensive contributions in the study of the Olmec civilization, wh ...
says it is the "most spectacular" Olmec three-dimensional sculpture while
Hugh Honour
Hugh Honour FRSL (26 September 1927 – 19 May 2016) was a British art historian, known for his writing partnership with John Fleming (art historian), John Fleming. Their ''A World History of Art'' (a.k.a. ''The Visual Arts: A History''), is now ...
finds it "the finest of all Olmec sculptures". For
Ignacio Bernal
Ignacio Bernal (February 13, 1910 in Paris - January 24, 1992 in Mexico City) was an eminent Mexican anthropologist and archaeologist.
Bernal excavated much of Monte Albán, originally starting as a student of Alfonso Caso, and later led major ar ...
it is "one of the greatest of Olmec works of art", a thought later echoed by Michael Coe who says it is "one of the supreme examples of Olmec art" with a "feeling for individual character and for human physique
hich
Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District of Ijrud County, Zanjan Province, Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ...
could only come from long study of anatomy".
Comparing it to other pre-Columbian art, archaeologist
Mary Ellen Miller
Mary Ellen Miller (born December 30, 1952) is an American art historian and academician specializing in Mesoamerica and the Maya.
Academic career
A native of New York State, Miller earned her A.B. degree from Princeton University and her Ph.D. fr ...
describes the ''Wrestler'' as "among the most powerful three-dimensional portraits of the ancient New World".
Art historian
George Kubler
George Alexander Kubler (26 July 1912 - 3 October 1996) was an American art historian and among the foremost scholars on the art of Pre-Columbian America and Ibero-American Art.
Biography
Kubler was born in Hollywood, California, but most of ...
discerns few rivals anywhere, stating that "the spiraling motion of the body, the multiplicity of profile, the coherent muscles, and the expressive restraint of the work set it apart as among the great works of sculpture of all ages".
[Kubler, p. 133.] In 1996, the government of the
United Mexican States
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
issued a one-ounce silver coin bearing the image of the sculpture on its
obverse
Obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags, seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, ''o ...
, one of six in the Olmec cultural set.
Notes
References
*
* (1996) "
atalogue #1. Antonio Plaza Monument 1 — Seated Figure with Mustache and Beard", in ''Olmec Art of Ancient Mexico'', E. P. Benson and B. de la Fuente (eds.),
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...
, Washington D.C., , p. 172.
* (1989) "The Olmec Heartland: Evolution of Ideology" in Robert J. Sharer and David Grove (eds), ''Regional Perspectives on the Olmec'', Cambridge University Press, .
* (1995)
An Iconographic Note: "List of dead wrestler"?, ''Mexicon'', v. XVII, n. 2.
*
* (2005) ''A World History of Art'', seventh edition, Laurence King Publishing, .
* (1984) ''The Art and Architecture of Ancient America: The Mexican, Maya and Andean Peoples'', Pelican History of Art, Yale University Press, .
*
*
*
External links
The rear view of the sculpture
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wrestler, The
Indigenous sculpture of the Americas
Olmec art
Sculptures
1933 archaeological discoveries
Sculptures of sports
Wrestling culture