Maya Gualpopa Polychrome Cylinders (Group of 2)

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Ancient | Asian | Ethnographic

By Artemis Gallery

Jan 16, 2020

Set Reminder 2020-01-16 10:00:00 2020-01-16 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Ancient | Asian | Ethnographic https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/ancient-asian-ethnographic-4799
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• Lot Description
  Pre-Columbian, El Salvador, Maya, Gualpopa, Late Classic Period, ca. 600 to 900 CE. A wonderful set of two hand-built pottery cylinders, both with flat bases and thick rims and a pale-orange base color, the smaller with a lightly-tapering form, and the larger with bulging walls. The smaller vessel is decorated with thick red swaths along the rim and lower body, repeating black-painted registers of undulating waves, zigzagging lines, red-painted spacer lines above and sinuous waves below, and a register of red pyramids and black stylized human heads in the center. The top of the larger vessel has black-painted glyphs in abstract avian and human head forms, with a register of repeating arches above a trio of abstract deer-form glyphs separated by vertical red frets. Size of largest (deer glyphs): 6.5" W x 7.4" H (16.5 cm x 18.8 cm).
  
  According to Peterson and Green's "Precolumbian Flora and Fauna: Continuity of Plant and Animal Themes in Mesoamerican Art", "The nimble speed and bounding grace of deer only partially suggest their fire and stellar symbolism and their recurring role in creation myths. As one of the most valued sources of meat, deer were also featured in ancient fertility rites. .. The deer is a consistent actor in Maya creation myths. Over time the animal played numerous roles in stories about the formation of the cosmos. Most frequently the deer is a metaphor for the sun during his courtship of the moon. The sun dons a deer skin disguise as part of his plot to regain his wife the moon." (Jeanette Favrot Peterson with essays by Judith Strupp Green, "Precolumbian Flora and Fauna: Continuity of Plant and Animal Themes in Mesoamerican Art"; Mingei International Museum, 1990, p. 22)
  
  Provenance: private California, USA Collection, the larger purchased in the late 1980s, the other in the 2000s; (the larger) ex-private San Diego County, California, USA collection; ex-private Smith collection
  
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  #145710

  Condition

  Smaller vessel has one stable hairline fissure along rim and small chips to rim and body. Larger vessel professionally reassembled from multiple pieces with light restoration, resurfacing, and overpainting along break lines. Both vessels have light abrasions and fading to original pigmentation. Nice earthen deposits throughout.
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