Lot 276
Pre-Columbian, Gulf Coast Mexico, Veracruz (Vera Cruz) culture, Remojadas style, ca. late 3rd to 6th century CE. A handsome example of a hand-built pottery portrait head of a youthful individual. The expressive and veristic countenance presents with impressed almond-shaped eyes that look skyward beneath thin brows, a broad nose with flared nostrils, gently tapered cheeks, parted lips with a delineated philtrum, and tall, sweeping ears with enlarged lobe perforations. The pupils of the eyes are accentuated with bituminous black pigment known as chapapote, and the bald top was perhaps adorned with additional embellishments at one time. A finely detailed example. Size: 6.75" W x 7.5" H (17.1 cm x 19 cm)
Excavations near the modern Mexican town of Remojadas have revealed two types of impressive, detailed pottery figures from the Veracruz period: the Sonrientes, the joyous "smiling faces", and figures that had heads like this one, more serious, and mostly adult figures making this youthful face unusual, with elaborate costumes, themes, and sometimes props that all seem to point towards religious or political ceremonies. Figures with heads like this example are often found with the bodies broken into pieces though with the heads largely intact, as they were ritually destroyed as burial offerings. Their clothing suggests that they depict people of import in society, perhaps priests or nobility.
Provenance: ex-Mathias Komor Works of Art Gallery, New York, New York, USA, acquired around 1965, inv. no. L104
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#151775
- Condition: Professional repair and restoration to top of head, ears, right cheek, neck and verso, with minor chips and resurfacing along new material and break lines. Nicks and abrasions to neckline, ears, face, and top, with light encrustations, and light softening to some finer details. Nice earthen deposits throughout and craquelure to black pupil pigment.
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