Pre-Columbian, Colombia, Highland Narino region, Capuli Cultural Complex, Narino culture, ca. 850 to 1500 CE. An intriguing, hand-built pottery coca-chewing figure - known as a coquero - seated on a stool atop an integral plinth. Highly burnished and painted with burnt sienna slip, the man presents with bent, delineated legs and an upright posture while holding both arms atop his thighs and wearing an incised sash across his chest and one shoulder. His head peers forward with large, almond-shaped eyes and has perforated nostrils, slender lips, vertical black stripes painted across his face, and a bulge in his right cheek to signify the chewing of coca leaves. Size: 4.9" L x 4.77" W x 6.7" H (12.4 cm x 12.1 cm x 17 cm)
Cf. Labbe, Armand J. "Colombia Before Columbus: The People, Culture, and Ceramic Art of Prehispanic Colombia." Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 1986, p. 144, plate 124.
Provenance: private Eagle, Colorado, USA collection, acquired in the 1990s; ex-Hank Johnson collection
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#168251
Condition
Minor abrasions and fading to pigment in scattered areas, with light encrustations within some recessed areas, and nicks to peripheries and base of plinth, otherwise intact and excellent. Great preservation to finer details and overall figural form.