Inca Silver Capacocha Female Figure - 1.3 g

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Ancient / Ethnographic - Holiday Edition

By Artemis Gallery

Dec 5, 2019

Set Reminder 2019-12-05 10:00:00 2019-12-05 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Ancient / Ethnographic - Holiday Edition https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/ancient-ethnographic---holiday-edition-4710
What to give this holiday season? Ancient & Ethnographic Art of course! Our special Holiday auction features hundreds of unique finds from all over the world. Artemis Gallery info@artemisgallery.com

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• Lot Description
  Pre-Columbian, Peru, Inca, ca. 1400 to 1533 CE. A female figurine - created to honor Pachamama (Earth Mother) - made from hammered silver (94%) sheet and sitting with upraised knees and hands held before her chest in prayer. The level of detail is quite impressive - her visage comprised of coffee bean shaped eyes, an arched browline lading to a petite nose, and an open mouth as if praying or chanting, all topped by a caplike coiffure with long straight locks falling down her back - her fingers and toes nicely delineated as well. As with other female anthropomorphic figurines of this type, there is a vertical line running along the center of the hair from front to back. Also characteristic of such figures, the head is relatively large in proportion to the rest of her body. A fine example with a rich symbolic context (see more about this in the extended description below). Size: 1.5" H (3.8 cm); 3.25" H (8.3 cm) on included custom stand. Weight: 1.3 grams. Silver quality: 94%.
  
  Such miniature figurines wrought in hammered metals were handed over as offerings to accompany human sacrifices during the ritual of capacocha, meaning royal sin or obligation. Upon the death of an Inca king, Capacocha took place. This ritual was used to incorporate new territory into the rapidly expanding Inca empire. Local lords selected unblemished children who represented the human ideal to Cusco. These children were then married and presented with miniature human and llama figurines made of gold, silver, copper, and shell. The human figurines hold their hands clasped to their chests - a gesture of reverence. Next, t he children and their figural offerings returned to their original communities. There they were ceremoniously honored before being sacrificed to the mountain gods.
  
  Such figures were ritually deposited and regarded as sacred entities known as "huacas" (a Quechua and Aymara term). A similar example in gold is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1979.206.1058). According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art curatorial department, "This figurine is similar in morphology and fabrication as ones often associated with assemblages from sites of capac hucha, or 'royal obligation,' described (Cieza de Leon 1959, 190–193; Diez de Betanzos 1996, 132) as an Inca state-sanctioned performance. In this practice, offerings were made in Cusco or in the hinterlands to mark the expansion of the empire and the service of the provincial peoples to the Inca royalty, in the process demonstrating reverence to certain sacred points in the natural landscape, including apus, or mountain deities, through the deposition of offerings. This pursuit of territorial control was undertaken through other tactics as well, such as the resettlement of conquered peoples and the mandate that peoples in Inca hinterlands bring huacas to Cusco and care for them there, in the imperial capital (Cobo 1979, 191). "
  
  Provenance: ex-private Bettina Schwimmer collection, Chicago, Illinois, USA, collected from 1955-2006
  
  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.
  
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  #150863

  Condition

  Slight casting flaws. Tiny perforations through top and bottom of piece. Otherwise excellent. There is an old collection label on the bottom of the stand. A small piece of display putty is on bottom of feet; however, if desired, the figure can be removed rather easily from the stand. Silver has developed a nice patina.
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