Lot 107B
Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Jalisco, San Juanito, ca. 300 BCE to 300 CE. An exceptional San Juanito pottery figure with a highly-burnished surface, this pensadora (female pensador or thinker) is posed with one leg folded beneath a broad skirt and the other bent upwards, her sinuous arms and pointed chin resting atop her patella. Her emaciated state is emphasized by the curvature of her back and the delineated spinal column bulging from under her skin. An enlarged head boasts coffee-bean eyes, an aquiline nose, cup-shaped ears with multiple earrings and perforated canals, and a large brow with an incised groove denoting a simple cap. A large wad of coca leaves protrudes from her cheek, typical of a coquera (coca-chewer) about to enter a trance-like state. Her pensive, somewhat melancholy face exhibits faint black resist lines suggestive of tattooing or ritual scarification, with red, orange, and cream slip providing details to her body and clothing. This example is exceedingly rare given the morose countenance and overall size. Size: 6.5" W x 11.25" H (16.5 cm x 28.6 cm).
Clay figures like this example are the only remains that we have today of this 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, they developed a widely-used method of burial known as shaft tombs.
The dead were buried down shafts - 3 to 20 meters deep - that were dug vertically or near vertically through tepetate, the volcanic tuff that makes up the geology of the region. The base of the shaft would open into one or more horizontal chambers with a low ceiling. These shafts were almost always dug beneath a dwelling, probably a family home, and seem to have been used as family mausoleums, housing the remains of many related individuals. 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.
This is a figure made to be placed inside those mausoleums, perhaps to mediate between the worlds of the living and the dead. However, we unfortunately lack the information we would need to understand what these figures were truly made for - do they represent everyday people, even individuals? Are they religious? Were they created to mediate between the living and the dead? Whatever their purpose, today they are beautiful artwork and reminders of the mysterious past.
Provenance: private Pacific Palisades, California, USA collection; ex-Lucia Meza collection, acquired in 1950s
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#131037
- Condition: Repair to figures left hand near wrist with light resurfacing along break line. Expected age-commensurate surface wear, minor areas of roughness on base, and stable fissures along back and abdomen. Small chips to one ear, back of head, skirt, back, and foot. Fire-clouding to areas of face, cap, and back, with some fading and discoloration to pigmentation, otherwise near choice. Great root marks, earthen deposits, and manganese blossoms throughout. Old inventory sticker with DW1147 on base.
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