Colima Coahuayana Valley Terracotta Seated Warrior

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Ancient & Ethnographic Art Through The Ages

By Artemis Gallery

Jun 17, 2021

Set Reminder 2021-06-17 10:00:00 2021-06-17 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Ancient & Ethnographic Art Through The Ages https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/ancient-ethnographic-art-through-the-ages-7094
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• Lot Description
  Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Colima, Coahuayana Valley type, Protoclassic Period, ca. 100 BCE to 250 CE. A magnificent warrior figure of a sizable form that is hand-built from pottery and exhibits highly burnished surfaces accentuated with orange-red pigment. The regal man sits with bent legs atop an integral, four-legged stool, wears a simple loincloth around his waist, and presents with a dignified, upright posture. In his right hand he holds a double-ended hand axe with a narrow tubular instrument on top and bends his left arm to place his hand atop his slightly concave chest. A slender strap is draped atop his left clavicle, and his shoulders are adorned with zigzagging bangles as well as dozens of petite scarification nodules. Impressed eyes, a tab-shaped nose, spool-adorned ears, and puffy lips create the stylized visage, and the tiered headdress doubles as the figure's cylindrical opening. Size: 9.2" W x 16.2" H (23.4 cm x 41.1 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 most likely would have flanked the entrance to a tomb in a way that archaeologists have interpreted as guarding. Some scholars have interpreted 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. Kan, Michael, Clement Meighan, and H.B. Nicholson. "Sculpture of Ancient West Mexico: Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima | A Catalogue of the Proctor Stafford Collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art." University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1989, p. 139, fig. 127 and p. 142, fig. 132.
  
  Provenance: private New York, USA collection, acquired around 1966
  
  All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
  
  A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
  
  We ship worldwide and handle all shipping in-house for your convenience.
  
  #159215

  Condition

  Repaired from several large pieces, with resurfacing and overpainting along break lines. Chips and a couple of fissures along right wrist and chest, with light pitting and encrustations, and minor fading to original pigment. Great preservation to overall form and remains of original pigment.
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