Lot 68
Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Nayarit, ca. 300 BCE to 300 CE. A rare blackware figure of a woman, seated with her legs folded underneath her skirt, her shoulders studded with raised scarification marks. She has one hand resting on her lap, while the other holds a small bowl to her stomach. Her head is large relative to her body, with big, oval eyes, a large nose with a nose ring, and a small mouth, her lips curved upwards in a secretive smile. She wears a headband and two large, round earrings. Size: 6.7" W x 9.45" H (17 cm x 24 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. 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.
Provenance: private Stagecoach, Nevada, USA collection; acquired from 1985 to present from galleries such as Arte Primitivo, Art For Eternity, Butterfields, and Riverbend Gallery
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#128745
- Condition: Loss to bottom of leg (not visible when the figure is seated upright). Head has been reattached, and the large cracks on the back of the figure have been stabilized. Nice root marks on surface.
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