Art Institute of ChicagoPublic domain

Model Depicting a Ritual Center

Nayarit · 100–800 CE

Provenance

Ownership history

Ethel Goldsmith (1919–2017; born Frank) and Julian Goldsmith (1918–1999), Chicago, Nov. 1960 [Goldsmith Collection document; Oct. 1990; copy in curatorial object file]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1989.

Recorded by Art Institute of Chicago.

Exhibitions

Art Institute of Chicago, <a href="https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/7058/the-art-of-tribes-and-early-kingdoms-selections-from-chicago-collections">The Art of Tribes and Early Kingdoms: Selections from Chicago Collections</a>, Jan. 12–Mar. 4, 1984, no cat. no.
Art Institute of Chicago, <a href="https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/8372/ancient-west-mexico-art-and-archaeology-of-the-unknown-past">Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past</a>, Sept. 5–Nov. 22, 1998, cat. 183; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Dec. 20, 1998–Mar. 29, 1999.
Chicago, National Museum of Mexican Art, Images of Faith: 3000 Years of Spiritual Expressions in Mexico, Apr. 24–Aug. 16, 2026, no cat.

Literature

Hasso von Winning and Olga Hammer, Anecdotal Sculpture of Ancient West Mexico, exh. cat. (The Ethnic Arts Council of Los Angeles, 1972), 59, cat. 41 (ill.).
Richard Townsend, The Art of Tribes and Early Kingdoms: Selections from Chicago Collections, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1983), 31, fig. 45 (ill.).
Richard Townsend, ed., Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1998), 109, cat. 183 (ill.).
Mireille Holsbeke and Karel Arnaut, eds., Offerings for a New Life: Funerary Images from pre-Columbian West Mexico, exh. cat. (Antwerp Ethnographic Museum, 1998), 18 (ill.).
Richard Townsend and Kathleen Bickford Berzock, "The Art Institute of Chicago New Galleries” Tribal Arts XVI-1/62 (Winter 2001): 65, fig. 16 (ill.).
James N. Wood, Treasures from The Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 2000), 28 (ill.).
Jean Sousa, Looking at Art Together: A Parent Guide (Art Institute of Chicago, 2002), 59 (ill.).
Richard Townsend with Elizabeth Pope, Indian Art of the Americas at the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 2016), 150-151, cat. 123 (ill.).
Matthew Brennan, "Ritual Center: 3D Model," Sketchfab, accessed Feb. 2, 2026, <a href="https://skfb.ly/TKqw">https://skfb.ly/TKqw</a>.
Brigitte Faugère and Christopher Beekman, eds. Anthropomorphic Imagery in the Mesoamerican Highlands (University Press of Colorado, 2020), cover (ill.).

Comparables