Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Jalisco, ca. 300 BCE to 300 CE. A splendid pottery female figure shown seated with legs stretched before her and slender arms bent at elbows exposing her palms to the viewer. Adorned in horizontal stripes of burnt orange and creamy beige slip, she sits upright displaying a bulbous - possibly pregnant - belly, voluptuous breasts, and stippled shoulders. Her elongated head faces forward, addressing the viewer with ovoid eyes that sit just above her huge, curved nose and gently opened mouth, all flanked by a pair of low-set ears with dangling adornments. A pair of armbands decorate each of her biceps, while a thick headband sits near the top of her towering forehead. Size: 10.5" W x 16.2" H (26.7 cm x 41.1 cm)
Jalisco, located on Mexico's southwestern coast, was during this time part of the shaft tomb culture, along with neighbors in Colima and Nayarit. In this culture, the dead were buried down shafts - 3 to 20 meters deep - that were dug vertically or near vertically through the volcanic tuff that makes up the geology of the region. The base of the shaft would open into one or more horizontal chambers with a low ceiling. These shafts were almost always dug beneath a dwelling, probably a family home, and seem to have been used as family mausoleums, housing the remains of many related individuals. Within the tombs, they arrayed skeletons 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 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: ex-private Bishop Family Trust collection, the Trust of the late Bill Bishop, a noted antiquarian with shops in Scottsdale, Arizona and Allenspark, Colorado, USA, acquired before 2010
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#172889
Condition
Small chips to toes of left foot, headband, and peripheries of ears. Areas of fire-darkening to feet and slight wobble to base. Otherwise, intact and excellent. Impressively preserved with great remaining pigments and detail as well as nice manganese deposits.