Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Nayarit, Protoclassic Period, ca. 100 BCE to 250 CE. An expressive and sizable warrior figure of a hollow form built from pottery and exhibiting highly burnished surfaces adorned with vibrant red-orange pigment. The bulky figure sits nude with bent legs atop an integral, two-legged stool and has a bulbous abdominal ornament suspended from his navel. Both slender arms project out from the front of a set of incised barrel armor and have delineated hands grasping a formidable club. The tall countenance presents slit-form eyes above a ring-adorned nose, a narrow mouth, and ears bedecked with multiple earrings, and his bicorn helmet is incised with dense lattice-patterned motifs. Size: 9.5" W x 17.6" H (24.1 cm x 44.7 cm)
Ceramic 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. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, accession number AC1996.146.23
Provenance: private New York, USA collection, acquired around 1966, ex-Land's Beyond Gallery, NY.
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#159211
Condition
Repaired from multiple large pieces with head reattached at neck, with resurfacing and overpainting along break lines. Abrasions and fading to original pigment, with softening to some incised details and facial features, and light encrustations. Nice remains of original pigment throughout.