Lot 55
Pre-Columbian, Southern Mexico to Guatemala, Maya, Late Classic Period, ca. 550 to 900 CE. A definite conversation starter - this blackware pottery lidded vessel is in the shape of a skull, with expressive features, gaping eye sockets and nose hole, and an open, leering grin. The lid fits neatly over the bridge of the nose and is much of the forehead and top of the head. The lid has an incised motif around its front edge, and white pigment highlights the incised motifs. Fascinatingly, the place where the mandible meets the skull includes a molded fastener - as if representing how the Maya might have held together a real skull. Size: 6.5" W x 5.5" H (16.5 cm x 14 cm)
Does this represent a trophy head? Disembodied heads were a near-universal constant in Mesoamerican imagery for millennia, although by the Classic Maya period it seems likely that the taking of actual trophy heads, for the most part, had been replaced by the ball from the ballgame. One example of this is in the Popol Vuh, a text recounting the history and mythology of the Kiche Maya of the Guatemalan Highlands, where a decapitated head is used instead of a rubber ball.
Provenance: private New York, New York, USA collection; ex-Arte Primitivo Gallery, New York City, USA
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#146363
- Condition: Professionally repaired and restored. This is well done and difficult to discern. Great deposits on surface and nice remaining original pigment.
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