Lot 158
Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Nayarit, ca. 300 BCE to 300 CE. An impressive pottery male figure, likely a captive, depicted nude with an emaciated body. Squatting atop stocky legs and broad feet, the gaunt man hunches forward jutting out his elongated head displaying a stylized visage of slit-form eyes, a giant, curved nose adorned by a septum ring, a petite, open mouth, and a pointed chin, all capped by a helmet-like headdress. His cadaverous body displays a bony rib cage, a raised navel, a delineated phallus, and attenuated arms that extend backwards from square shoulders to hold a pole behind him. A series of 8 spiked embellishments with target motif terminals project from his cheeks, just in front of his lengthy ears. Size: 6.5" W x 11.1" H (16.5 cm x 28.2 cm); 11.5" H (29.2 cm) on included custom stand.
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. Museum of Fine Arts Houston, 50.26 and Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1996.354.
Provenance: private Dodge collection, Superior, Colorado, USA, acquired in 2018; ex-Pacific Palisades, California, USA collection, acquired before 2000; ex-Los Angeles, California, USA collection before 2000
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#170589
- Condition: Repaired from several pieces with restoration and repainting over break lines. Small stable hairline surface fissure on right side of back and minor chip to back of head. Expected nicks, pitting, and abrasions, commensurate with age. Otherwise, excellent with nice manganese deposits.
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