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Ornament in the Form of the Fat God

Culture Maya
Title Ornament in the Form of the Fat God
Date 600–900
Medium Bone and cinnabar
Dimensions Object: 1 3/8 × 1 3/8 × 1 in. (3.5 × 3.5 × 2.5 cm)
Overall (includes mount): 2 × 1 3/8 × 1 in. (5.1 × 3.5 × 2.5 cm)
Credit Line Raymond and Laura Wielgus Collection, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Accession Number 76.147

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About this Work

The heavy, closed eyelids, round face, and puffy cheeks identify this ornament as the Fat God, a little-understood deity who, among the Maya, is sometimes accompanied by hieroglyphs suggesting that he was considered gluttonous and given to other excesses. The traces of cinnabar, a red mineral ore, suggest that this ornament may have had ritual significance, for that material had been rubbed on ritual objects by Mesoamerican peoples since Olmec times.


Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.

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"Ornament in the Form of the Fat God | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=76.147