Nayarit San Sebastian Pottery Seated Male Mourner

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Ancient | Asian | Ethnographic

By Artemis Gallery

May 9, 2019

Set Reminder 2019-05-09 10:00:00 2019-05-09 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Ancient | Asian | Ethnographic https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/ancient-asian-ethnographic-4110
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• Lot Description
  Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Nayarit, San Sebastian style, Protoclassic Period, ca. 100 BCE to 250 CE. A fine hollow-built pottery figure in a classic distraught pose of mourning seated upon a broad posterior and bent legs. The man rests his left arm horizontally over both knees and grasps the incised tufts comprising his coiffure with his right hand. His downturned, pensive visage emanates a relatable sadness one feels when losing a loved one, with impressed puffy eyes, a prominent nose, rounded cheeks, and parted lips perhaps emitting a solemn prayer to the gods. Wide rings of black pigment accentuate the arms of the red-slipped figure and give it a personalized presentation. Size: 7.875" W x 10.9" H (20 cm x 27.7 cm).
  
  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. A large effigy like this one would most likely have flanked the entrance to a tomb or the periphery of the deceased 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.
  
  For a stylistically-similar example, please see: Kan, Michael, Clement Meighan, and H. B. Nicholson. "Sculpture of Ancient West Mexico: Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima | A Catalogue of the Proctor Stafford Collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art." Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1989, p. 98, fig. 50.
  
  Provenance: private New York, New York, USA collection; ex-private lifetime collection of Dr. Saul Tuttman & Dr. Gregory Siskind, New York, New York, USA, acquired in the 1980s
  
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  #145957

  Condition

  Repaired from multiple pieces, with resurfacing and overpainting along break lines, and restoration to areas of feet, arms, hands, and nose. Nicks and abrasions to limbs, body, and head, with fading to original pigmentation, and encrustations. Nice earthen deposits and manganese blooms throughout.
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