Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Jalisco, San Sebastian Red type, Protoclassic Period, ca. 100 BCE to 250 CE. A hollow-formed pottery figure depicting an elderly matron of a dignified presentation who rests in a kneeling position with both feet protruding out from one side of her brick-red skirt. The highly burnished composition features a sloped lap beneath a nude upper body with a portly belly, globular breasts, and sinuous arms held gently against her sides. A minimalist necklace hanging around her neck bears a shell-form 'bead' on either side of a tubular central pendant, and her flared ears are adorned with incised ornamentation. Her elongated countenance faces forward in an attentive manner with an aquiline nose, coffee-bean-shaped eyes with lids heavy from her advanced age, slightly concave cheeks flanking a protruding chin, and bared teeth lined with over a dozen petite perforations, all beneath a minimalist headwrap. A vent hole behind the head allowed heat to escape when this sizable effigy was being fired. Size: 8" W x 15.8" H (20.3 cm x 40.1 cm)
Cf. Kan, Michael, Clement Meighan, and H.B. Nicholson. "Ancient West Mexico: Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima | A Catalogue of the Proctor Stafford Collection at the Los Angeles Museum of Art." University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1989, p. 116, fig. 81.
This piece has been searched against the Art Loss Register database and has been cleared. The Art Loss Register maintains the world’s largest database of stolen art, collectibles, and antiques.
Provenance: ex-old private New England collection, acquired in the 1970s; ex-private California, USA collection, acquired in the 1960s
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#164669
Condition
Light abrasions and fading to pigment in several areas, with a few small spalls along torso and verso, small chips to vent hole behind head, light encrustations within some recessed areas, and one stable hairline fissure beneath base, otherwise intact and excellent. Great preservation to pigment as well as nice manganese deposits and root marks throughout.