Terracotta Figure Vessel Holding its Throat

The Cry

The mouth here is enormous, a perfect open circle edged with a row of flat teeth, so wide that it takes up most of the face. Above it, small eyes and nostrils peer out from a frame of fanned crests.

Then the hand. It grips the throat, fingers wrapped around the neck, as if holding back or pushing out the sound that the mouth is making. It is a dramatic, almost theatrical gesture, and it turns the whole figure into an image of the voice.

The arms cross over the body in a long, calm curve, studded with small dots. Below them, the front of the vessel is covered with spirals and overlapping scales, like an embroidered garment.

From the side the head tips back sharply, the mouth pointing upward. Of all the open-mouthed figures in the gallery’s collection, this one seems the most urgent.

A rounded vessel rising into a short neck and a broad head with a wide, open mouth edged with flat teeth. Large fan-shaped ears and radiating crests frame the face, and the eyes are set in raised rings.

One hand grips the throat while the arms cross over the body. A beaded collar surrounds the neck, and the front of the vessel is covered with a panel of spirals and scale-like motifs.