Rare Mixtec Wood Mosaic Mask - Dzahui / Tlaloc

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Fine Ethnographic / Asian / Ancient Art

By Artemis Gallery

May 10, 2018

Set Reminder 2018-05-10 10:00:00 2018-05-10 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Fine Ethnographic / Asian / Ancient Art https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/fine-ethnographic-asian-ancient-art-3213
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• Lot Description
  Pre-Columbian, Central Mexico, Mixtec, ca. 1200 to 1521 CE. A section of a wide-eyed mask of the rain god Tlaloc - or more accurately Dzahui (also Dzavui) in accordance with Mixtec mythology, carved from wood and once decorated with a mosaic of turquoise, stone, and/or shell tiles, though time and exposure have weathered away these delicate materials. This said, pieces of shell tiles remain fixed on the cheek and chin. Despite the fact that this is a fragment, one can certainly imagine the form completed with a mirror image of what remains. Size: 5" W x 9.375" H (12.7 cm x 23.8 cm); 10.125" H (25.7 cm) on included custom stand.
  
  The Rain God known as Dzahui (or Dzavui) among the Mixtecs, with his characteristically enormous eyes and fanged mouth, was one of the supreme deities of the Pre-Columbian world, associated with caves, springs, and mountains; his animal forms are all sea dwellers. According to scholar Kevin Terraciano, "Dzahui was comparable in many respects to the Nahua Tlaloc, the Zapotec Cosijo, and the Maya Chac. The pan-Mesoamerican rain deity was so important in central Mexico that the Mexica elevated Tlaloc to an esteemed position alongside their ethnic deity, Huitziloposhtli. People continued to make offerings to Dzahui after the conquest. Men and women from the Mixteca Alta stated that when it had not rained for a long time, they invoked Dazhui, performed sacrifices,a nd drank pulque. Don Juan, the governor of Etlatongo, said that they made offerings when there was no water, when there was illness, and when they harvested the fields." (Kevin Terraciano, "The Mixtecs of Colonial Oaxaca: Nudzahui History, Sixteenth Through . .Stanford University Press, 2001, p. 265.)
  
  To see a Mixtec mask of Dzahui/Tlaloc once exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum and published in "Ancient Art of Latin America from the Collection of Jay C. Leff" (The Brooklyn Museum: November 22, 1066 - March 5, 1967; No. 429, p. 96, photograph on p. 97) follow this link - http://merringallery.com/mosaic-encrusted-mask-of-tlaloc/
  
  Provenance: ex-Adeon Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, USA acquired prior to 1970
  
  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.
  
  We ship worldwide and handle all shipping in-house for your convenience.
  
  #132355

  Condition

  A large section with losses as shown. Chin reattached. Nicks to edges and surface wear as shown; a few pieces of the mosaic that once covered the surface remain.
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