Lot 29G
Pre-Columbian, Mexico, northern Veracruz region, Huastec, ca. 900 to 1450 CE. A near-life-sized human torso, probably male, carved from a heavy, grey, volcanic stone, and depicted wearing a large, hanging pectoral on a wide, curved necklace. The figure's hands rest on its stomach, carved so that all five fingers are side by side and of equal length, with no delineated thumb. This stylistic choice echoes what we know of other ancient Huastec large-scale sculpture. Although they made generally lifelike depictions of the human body, their faces and poses are expressionless, almost-mask-like, with little room for personality. Instead, they are meant to show an idealized ruler or deity, denoted not by individual characteristics, but by the trappings of office. This necklace/pectoral probably had great meaning for Huastec people who saw it in its carved form. Size: 13.75" W x 15" H (34.9 cm x 38.1 cm); 18.75" H (47.6 cm) on included custom stand.
The Huastecs, who lived on Mexico's Gulf Coast and ultimately, in the 15th century, became one of the satellite states of the Aztec Empire, are little known aside from limited artwork and Aztec accounts given to Spanish chroniclers - and the Aztecs, perhaps trying to justify their own conquest of these people, did not paint them in a flattering light. Recent archaeological research has begun to bring their rich iconography to life. A sculpture like this one would have been placed in a public space within a city, either outdoors in a plaza or along the side of a monumental building, or inside of a temple.
Provenance: ex private Tampa, Florida, USA collection, acquired in the 1980s
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#131487
- Condition: Figure is a fragment, as shown, with torso below the neck to nearly the waist remaining. Breaks are ancient and smoothed. What remains is intact, with nice detail. Weathering to the stone has resulted in some pockmarks, as shown.
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