Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Nayarit, Chinesco, ca. 300 BCE to 200 CE. A lovely polychrome terracotta seated female figure with a characteristically enlarged head, heart-shaped face, ample-hipped legs spread apart. Her arms end at the waist, as if resting near her womb. Her face has tiny coffee bean-shaped eyes, a protruding nose adorned with a nose ring, and petite applied ears. Size: 5.45" W x 11.9" H (13.8 cm x 30.2 cm)
This style of sculpture is known as Chinesco by collectors because of its stylistic similarities to Chinese art. Clay figures like this one are the only remains that we have today of a sophisticated and unique culture in West Mexico -- they made no above-ground monuments or sculptures, at least that we know of, which is in strong contrast to developments elsewhere in ancient Mesoamerica. Instead, their tombs were their lasting works of art: skeletons arrayed radially with their feet positioned inward, and clay offerings, like this one, placed alongside the walls facing inward, near the skulls. An effigy like this one may have flanked the entrance to a tomb in a way that archaeologists have interpreted as guarding. Some scholars have connected these dynamic sculptures of the living as a strong contrast to the skeletal remains whose space they shared, as if they mediated between the living and the dead.
Provenance: private New York, New York, USA collection; ex-private collection of Dr. Saul Tuttman and Dr. Gregory Siskind, New York, USA
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#136823
Condition
Repaired at waist and near the shoulder of one arm. Some kind of protective coating has been put onto the pigment, giving the figure a shiny surface. Nice preservation of pigment, especially on the face.