Panama Cocle Polychrome Bowl w/ Janus-Headed Serpent

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Exceptional Day 2: Pre-Columbian & Tribal Art...

By Artemis Gallery

Oct 3, 2019

Set Reminder 2019-10-03 10:00:00 2019-10-03 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Exceptional Day 2: Pre-Columbian & Tribal Art https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/exceptional-day-2-pre-columbian-tribal-art-4453
Day 2 of an important 2-day auction featuring exceptional, museum-worthy examples of Pre-Columbian from the ancient Americas, Native American, African / Tribal, Oceanic, Spanish Colonial and fossils. Artemis Gallery info@artemisgallery.com

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• Lot Description
  Pre-Columbian, Central America, Panama, Cocle, ca. 500 to 700 CE. A rare four color, hand-built and highly-burnished pottery plate with a squat foot, a wide dish, a thick rim, and a shallow basin. Within the basin is a fascinating painting of a two-headed serpent with a swordfish-like snout between the two elongated eyes. The body of the serpent includes a long purple body in a thick black outline, with red fins rising from its back as it coils from the center of the bowl to ring the rim. Two black and red antennae or possibly legs emerge from above the eyes. Some researchers believe that the brightly colored Cocle ceramics refer to the contemporary belief system, which revolved around a mythical "Rainbow Serpent" who was believed to be the original designer of these motifs. Size: 7.5" W x 1.95" H (19 cm x 5 cm)
  
  The purple pigment dates this beautiful bowl to a short time period in Cocle artistry. According to scholar Samuel Kirkland Lothrop, "The Gran Cocle culture is a Pre-Columbian archaeological culture that gets its name from the area from which it was based, the now present-day Cocle province of Panama. The Gran Cocle term applies to a loosely studied group of Native American sub-cultures in this region, identified by their pottery styles. The overall period spans a time from 150 B.C. to the end in the 16th century A.D. upon Spanish contact. The most ancient culture is the La Mula period from 150 B.C. to 300 A.D. The La Mula and later Monagrillo and Tonosi pottery styles are identified by their the use of three paint colors which were black, red and white (or cream). The later Cubita style saw the emergence of the use of four colors. The styles of Conte, Macaracas and Joaquín added purple to their palette and this hue ranged from grayish tones to red purple. The use of purple disappeared in the subsequent styles of Parita and El Altillo and the paint style reverted back to the use of three colors. Most notable in the artistic renderings are the overt use of geometric designs." (For more information, see Armand Labbe, "Guardians of The Life Stream: Shamans, Art and Power in Prehispanic Central Panama" - Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, University of Washington Press, 1995.)
  
  Provenance: private Los Angeles, California, USA collection owned for almost two decades
  
  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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  #149936

  Condition

  Expertly repaired and restored. Small areas of overpaint along the repaired lines. This is well done and unobtrusive. Nice deposits on surface.
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