1969.13.1 Crouching frog (one of pair) (Mexico, Oaxaca, Mixtec) [1 of 2]

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

This crouching frog was reportedly found as part of a pair (with 1969.13.2) along with the Head of the rain god (1967.5) and a large ceramic hand (1969.13.3), with which they probably formed a shrine. Frogs were often positioned around the rain deity to mark the cardinal directions. These amphibians were also worshiped throughout Mesoamerica and, like Tlaloc, were symbols of rain and fertility. The Olmec were fascinated with the ability of certain frogs to shed their skin by consuming it, and so, like the frog, their kings transformed themselves metaphorically by shedding their skin to reveal a shaman identity within. The Maya used the image of a frog as the glyph for birthing, and even today, Maya boys make the sounds of chirping frogs as part of the rain rituals of the Yucatán.

Adapted from

Carol Robbins, Label text [1969.13.1 and 1969.13.2], A. H. Meadows Galleries, 2010.

NOTES

Mixtec, Late Postclassic period, c. 1300–1500 (noted on TMS), updated by KJones on 01/05/16 and 04/11/16.
Noted for Tlaloc Head (1967.5): Mixtec, Late Postclassic period, A.D. 1300-1521 (noted on TMS), updated by KJones on 10/15/13, 06/19/14, and 04/11/16.
Fun Facts Source: Kathy Windrow, TMS, Notes/Curatorial Remarks, September 1992.

Catalogue essays

Artist/designers

Cultures

Mixtec

Pre-Columbian (American): AAT: 300016619

Mixtec: AAT: 300017180

Geography

Mesoamerica

Mexico (nation): TGN: 7005560

Oaxaca (state): TGN: 7005591

Teotitlán del Camino (inhabited place): TGN: 1018441

Process/materials

Mixtec Ceramics

ceramic (material): AAT: 300235507

clay: AAT: 300010439

paint (coating): AAT: 300015029

glazing (coating): AAT: 300053914

incising: AAT: 300053847

stucco: AAT: 300014966

burnishing (polishing): AAT: 30053869

tufa (limestone): AAT: 300011712

coiling (pottery technique): AAT: 300053903

modeling (forming): AAT: 300053130

slab method (pottery technique): AAT: 300053905

gesso: AAT: 300014952

Historical periods

Postclassic (Mesoamerican period): AAT: 300016987

Late Postclassic: AAT: 300134119

Individuals

Subject terms

Tlaloc

ritual objects: AAT: 300312158

effigies: AAT: 300047108

colossi (large scale sculpture): AAT: 300047453

lightning: AAT: 300068795

rain (precipitation / weather): AAT: 300055377

water: AAT: 300011772

Tlaloc (Mesoamerican / Aztec deity of rain and lightning): CONA: 1001411

red (color): AAAT: 300126225

white (color): AAT: 300129784

frogs (animals): AAT: 300250018

monumental: AAT: 300073760

fangs (teeth): DMA

shrines: AAT: 300007558

fertility: AAT: 300379149

sacrifices: AAT: 300263243

caves (landforms): AAT: 300008746

cardinal directions (compass points): AAT: 300078457

toads: AAT: 300252284

tongue (animal or human components): DMA

cane toad (Bufo marinus / Rhinella marina / giant neotropical toad / marine toad): DMA

poison (venom): DMA

hallucinogen (psychoactive agent): DMA

RELATED OBJECTS

Reported as found in conjunction with Head of the rain god Tlaloc (1967.5), the other crouching frog (1969.13.2), and the hand (1969.13.3).

PROVENANCE

Until 1969: Harry A. Franklin Gallery (Harry Franklin, d. 1983), Beverly Hills [1]

From 1969: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas Art Association Purchase, purchased from the above [1], [2]

[1] The main source for this provenance is Acquisition Record (dated May 27, 1969, copy in Dallas Museum of Art Collections Records Object File, Confidential). Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.

[2] The Dallas Arts Association is the predecessor to the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. The name was abandoned in 1970. Works from this collection were transferred to the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.

AUDIO ASSETS

VIDEO ASSETS

IMAGE ASSETS

253363191: UMO. [Caption] Bufo marinus (Cane toad). Source: Springbrook National Park, Wikimedia Commons, accessed: April 27, 2015, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bufo_marinus_from_Australia.JPG#/media/File:Bufo_marinus_from_Australia.JPG.

WEB RESOURCES

ARCHIVAL RESOURCES

FUN FACTS

Colossal, hollow clay effigies are not numerous in the Mixtec region, and they rarely survive intact. These two gruesome toads with their blood red tongues, their venom glands behind bulging eyeballs, and their vicious fangs and teeth, may have been part of a shrine grouping in a cave in Oaxaca. Toads and frogs, associated with water and approaching rainstorms, often appear in Mesoamerican art marking the cardinal directions and surrounding the Rain Deity. Toads also relate to fertility because they lay so many eggs, to shamanic transformation because of their metamorphosis from egg to fish to animal, and to sacrifice because they shed and devour their own skin. One toad in Mesoamerica is larger and more awesome than all the rest: the carnivorous Bufo marinus. Behind its eyes, this toad has venomous glands that secrete more than two dozen poisons, one of them a potent hallucinogen ingested ritually since ancient times. These skin glands appear on the DMA's clay toads as swollen, pitted areas behind the eyes. Long before Mixtec artisans formed these great clay effigies, the Olmecs were apparently ranching toads for their medicinal properties, and thousands of toad remains have been uncovered by archaeologists at the Olmec site of San Lorenzo.

TEACHING IDEAS

RULES

Apply to objects where number equals 1969.13.1