Maya Jaina Polycrome Standing Elite Woman & Child

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Exceptional Antiquities, Asian, Ethnographic

By Artemis Gallery

Feb 13, 2020

Set Reminder 2020-02-13 10:00:00 2020-02-13 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Exceptional Antiquities, Asian, Ethnographic https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/exceptional-antiquities-asian-ethnographic-4848
An important one-day auction featuring museum-worthy examples of Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Etruscan, Near Eastern, Far East / Asian, Pre-Columbian, African / Tribal, Oceanic, Native American, Spanish Colonial, Russian, Fossils, Ancient Jewelry, Fine Art, so much more! Artemis Gallery info@artemisgallery.com

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• Lot Description
  Pre-Columbian, Jaina / Campeche Mexico, Maya, Late Classic Period, ca. 600 to 850 CE. A hand-modeled, fascinating ceramic representation of a standing elite woman with a child hiding between her legs. The woman's arms are crossed above the child's head, who appears to be male. Both have characteristically Maya faces, with emphasized noses and sloping, high foreheads. Both are adorned with fine jewelry: large, round earrings and large pendants, all of which are painted brilliant Maya blue. The woman also has an elaborate centrally-parted coiffure and, most strikingly, a massive, round headdress with a cross-hatched surface, blue border, and large, raised boss at its center. The woman also wears a long cape that drapes over her body, which, combined with her stance, presents a picture of a protective mother. Size: 2.45" W x 9" H (6.2 cm x 22.9 cm)
  
  Jaina figures, from an island off the Yucatan peninsula, are noted for their lifelike faces and their immense detail. The clothing that this figure wears almost certainly copies the real clothing of a person in the Late Classic Maya period. These figures probably represent actual people and seem likely to have been produced in Campeche and brought to Jaina Island to be buried with the dead. Fascinatingly, the people around Jaina are the only people in southeastern Mesoamerica who put human figures into graves - everywhere else in the region, figures have only been found in domestic contexts. The use of human figures immediately calls to mind the earlier West Mexican cultures that had extensive figures made solely to be placed in their shaft tombs. The Spaniard Diego de Landa, who recorded details of Mayan life shortly after the Spanish Conquest, wrote that the artists who created pieces like this one lived lives of religious isolation and ritual, fasting and abstaining.
  
  See a very similar figure at the Portland Art Museum (2005.29.15).
  
  Provenance: ex-Mathias Komor Works of Art Gallery, New York, New York, USA, acquired around 1965
  
  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.
  
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  #151773

  Condition

  Headdress has been expertly repaired/restored. Otherwise in gorgeous condition with much remaining pigment, especially the blue and white. Old collection label on lower body.
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