Nayarit Pottery Couple w/ Pipe

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Ancient | Ethnographic Art Through The Ages

By Artemis Gallery

Mar 4, 2021

Set Reminder 2021-03-04 10:00:00 2021-03-04 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Ancient | Ethnographic Art Through The Ages https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/ancient-ethnographic-art-through-the-ages-6467
Ancient art from Egypt, Greece, Italy and the Near East, as well as Asian, Fossils, Pre-Columbian, Native American, African / Tribal / Oceanic, Fine art, and much more! All categories, all price ranges... all legally acquired and guaranteed to be as described or your money back. Artemis Gallery info@artemisgallery.com

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• Lot Description
  Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Nayarit, Ixtlan Del Rio style, ca. 100 BCE to 250 CE. A marvelous pottery sculpture depicting a pair of embracing seated figures, one male and the other female. Resting her hand atop her bulging, possibly pregnant belly, the female is shown as the larger of the pair. Wearing only armbands, the nude woman displays a rotund body with small, risen breasts, tubular limbs with carefully incised fingers and toes, and a tranquil visage featuring a straight mouth, a bulbous nose, lines of ceremonial scarification across her cheeks, and incised, coffee-bean shaped eyes, all flanked by sizable, vertically striated ears. Alternatively, the male sits with both his legs atop the woman's proper left leg and holds a long tube to his mouth as he sucks from a petite container in his lap, possibly holding some type of drug. Nude save for his arm bands and a headband, the male figure presents a similar visage to that of his partner, though his nose is much narrower and pointed. Both figures are topped with skillfully incised hair and embellished in shades of maroon, sienna, and golden tan under a lustrous burnish. Size: 5.625" W x 5.75" H (14.3 cm x 14.6 cm)
  
  Smoking was not merely a recreational pursuit in Pre-Columbian cultures, but was performed by shamans for ritual and/or ceremonial purposes. It is known from ethnographic data that shamans would blow smoke over individuals in curing ceremonies, and in other contexts to symbolically produce clouds for rain. Shamans also smoked substances to induce altered states of consciousness, important in their mediation between the seen and unseen realms.
  
  According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Paired male and female figures are common subjects in the ceramics of the western Mexico peoples of Jalisco, Colima, and Nayarit. Named for the states in which the works have been discovered in quantity in deeply buried, multichambered shaft tombs, the ceramic sculptures show aspects of daily and ritual life, from ballgame representations to feasting ceremonies to deceptively simple family scenes. While subject matter was relatively consistent throughout the entire region, style distinctions existed. "
  
  Provenance: private New York, New York, USA collection; ex-Billie Ross estate, Chicago, Illinois, USA, before 2001; ex-Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, USA
  
  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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  #162146

  Condition

  Collection label on base. A few hairline surface fissures on base commensurate with age. Expected nicks/chips and abrasions. Char marks on female figure. Otherwise, excellent and intact with lovely remaining pigments.
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