Lot 60A
Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Nayarit, Protoclassic period, ca. 100 BCE to 250 CE. A hand-built and highly burnished male figure seated upon an integral, two-legged stool. The nude man presents with a dramatic forward lean while using his extended left arm to support his upper body, and his right arm is placed in front of his mouth with a bifurcated nose ring draped atop his index and middle fingers. Hunched, muscular shoulders taper inward towards a segmented necklace that forms the base for the elongated head. Slit-form eyes, a broad nose, an angular mandible, and ring-adorned ears comprised the pensive visage, and the bulbous brow is lined with five cords bearing segmented impressions. Size: 5.875" W x 12.25" H (14.9 cm x 31.1 cm)
Clay figures like this one are the only remains that we have today of a sophisticated and unique culture in West Mexico. They made no above-ground monuments or sculptures, at least that we know of, which is in strong contrast to developments elsewhere in ancient Mesoamerica. Instead, their tombs were their lasting works of art: skeletons arrayed radially with their feet positioned inward, and clay offerings, like this one, placed alongside the walls facing inward, near the skulls. A large effigy like this one would most likely have flanked the entrance to a tomb in a way that archaeologists have interpreted as guarding. Some scholars have connected these dynamic sculptures of the living as a strong contrast to the skeletal remains whose space they shared, as if they mediated between the living and the dead.
Cf. a female contemporary at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, accession number M.86.296.66
Provenance: private New York, USA collection, acquired around 1966
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#159212
- Condition: Abrasions and nicks to limbs, stool, body, and head, with minor fading and small areas of fire-darkening to pigment, and light encrustations, otherwise intact and excellent. Great remains of pigment throughout.
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