Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Nayarit, San Sebastian type, Protoclassic Period, ca. 100 BCE to 250 CE. A tall male warrior standing upon dramatically arched feet and stocky legs. The man presents nude from the waist down and wears a set of barrel-shaped armor exhibiting a cream-hued lower half and an upper half with dense linear striations that form broad diamond-shaped patterns. The way in which he wields the fragmentary club is suggestive of the sheer size of the missing striking head. His puffy, red-painted cheeks enhance his fearsome presentation along with coffee-bean-shaped eyes and ring-adorned ears, and topping his head is a bicorn helmet with incised motifs and red-tipped horns. Size: 6.75" W x 19" H (17.1 cm x 48.3 cm)
This figure stood guard in a shaft tomb, most likely placed so that it was facing outward around the perimeter of the tomb. Some scholars have theorized that this symbolically depicted a continuum between the worlds of the living and the dead. A brawny, militant protector with serious attitude from the ancients of West Mexico.
For a stylistically-similar example, please see The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, accession number AC1996.146.23
Provenance: private New York, New York, USA collection; ex-private New Jersey, USA collection, acquired around 1960
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.
#156028
Condition
One end of club missing from antiquity, missing one right toe, chip to one left toe, horns invisibly reattached, liberal manganese blooms throughout.