The remains of a once vibrant culture are now submerged under a lake. Fortunately, excavations in the 1940's on the site were able to uncover sufficient artifacts to give us an intriguing picture of people who lived there centuries ago. Chupicuaro was the elaborate burial ground of a village above the Lerma River in the state of Guanajuato, eighty miles northwest of the Valley of Mexico. The abundant offerings of pottery, jade, and figurines discovered there attest to a flourishing artistic culture. One of the most endearing types of the clay objects is the small female figures, or 'pretty ladies'. They typically show a naked female with short arms, extended stomach and a fancy coiffure or headdress.

It is not uncommon for ancient artifacts to seem mysterious, out of context in the modern world. Progress had rendered many objects obsolete; at best they offer a faint clue to a vanished world without function in the modern age. Yet when we gaze upon this charming little nude, there is no mistaking her timeless message. She represents the eternally feminine, something vital and essential that has changed little through history. She connects us in a direct and understandable way with the time and the place that created her.