Maya Jaina Terracotta Warrior Figures (matched pr)

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Exceptional Antiquities, Asian, Ethnographic

By Artemis Gallery

Jun 4, 2020

Set Reminder 2020-06-04 10:00:00 2020-06-04 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Exceptional Antiquities, Asian, Ethnographic https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/exceptional-antiquities-asian-ethnographic-5185
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• Lot Description
  Pre-Columbian, Mexico, Yucatan, Jaina / Campeche, Maya, Late Classic Period, ca. 600 to 850 CE. A beautiful matched set of hollow-molded pottery warrior figures, each standing atop an integral plinth. The warriors present with rigid postures, wear lengthy shawls over their shoulders and large necklaces around their necks, drape their cuff-adorned arms to their sides, and don elaborate earrings from each ear. A short dwarf figure stands to the right of each figure and acts as an attendant. Each warrior countenance bears almond-shaped eyes, a bulbous nose, full lips, and a smooth forehead, all beneath an enormous headdress bedecked with finery and curvilinear motifs. Thick traces of white pigment are visible across both compositions and suggest that they were painted with vivid colors at one time. A fabulous pair from the ancient Maya! Size of each (both are relatively similar): 4" W x 7.875" H (10.2 cm x 20 cm); 8.125" H (20.6 cm) on included custom stand.
  
  Jaina figures, from an island off the Yucatan peninsula, are noted for their lifelike faces and their immense detail. The clothing that these figures wear almost certainly copies the real clothing of elite warrior 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 Maya 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 abstinence.
  
  Provenance: private New York, New York, USA collection; ex-private Florida, USA collection, acquired in the 1960s
  
  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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  #149198

  Condition

  Both figures have minor abrasions to bases, bodies, and heads, with light softening to some finer details, fading and chipping to original pigmentation, and minor encrustations, otherwise intact and excellent. Nice earthen deposits throughout, and traces of original pigment in scattered areas.
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