Jade Face Masks
Another type of artifact is much smaller; hardstone carvings in jade of a face in a mask form. Curators and scholars refer to "Olmec-style" face masks but, to date, no example has been recovered in an archaeologically controlled Olmec context. They have been recovered from sites of other cultures, including one deliberately deposited in the ceremonial precinct of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City). The mask would presumably have been about 2,000 years old when the Aztec buried it, suggesting such masks were valued and collected as Roman antiquities were in Europe.
Famous quotes containing the words jade, face and/or masks:
“Do not pray for gold and jade and precious things; pray that your children and grandchildren may all be good.”
—Chinese proverb.
“We see God face to face every hour, and know the savor of Nature.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I can love both fair and brown;
Her whom abundance melts, and her whom want betrays;
Her who loves loneness best, and her who masks and plays;
Her whom the country formed, and whom the town;
Her who believes, and her who tries;
Her who still weeps with spongy eyes;
And her who is dry cork, and never cries.
I can love her, and her, and you and you,
I can love any, so she be not true.”
—John Donne (1572–1631)