Lot 9
Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Nayarit, ca. 100 BCE to 250 CE. A compact yet commanding seated figure from the Nayarit culture, this ceramic effigy is a masterwork of form and symbolism rendered in deep red slip with black and cream mottling. The figure sits upright with legs outstretched, arms bent at the elbows, and fists resting firmly against a broad chest that swells with presence. The posture is calm yet powerful - an eternal stillness carved into clay. Crowning the head is a remarkable headdress, unmistakably shaped like a gourd or squash vessel - wide-brimmed, ribbed, and hollow-necked. This form is not merely ornamental but may carry layered meaning, suggesting fertility, ritual abundance, or a ceremonial vessel's symbolic function. The layered rings and flanged edges echo both vegetal and utilitarian forms, collapsing the boundary between body and container, identity and offering. Size: 2.2" L x 4.2" W x 6.3" H (5.6 cm x 10.7 cm x 16 cm)
The figure's stylized features - triangular nose, prominent brow, and flared ears adorned with disc earrings - mark it as a participant in the vibrant funerary traditions of ancient West Mexico. Such figures were often placed in shaft tombs, meant to accompany the dead into the afterlife as guardians, ancestors, or ritual companions.
The surface is richly burnished, the red slip bearing black speckling from firing, while white highlights trace the central axis of the figure's body. This intentional visual symmetry mirrors the spiritual balance these effigies were believed to embody. Striking for its expressive abstraction and iconic headdress, this figure stands as both an individual and archetype - one rooted in the ceremonial and agricultural lifeways of the Nayarit people.
Provenance: Collection of Y. Kayvan, Los Angeles, California, USA, acquired from a Los Angeles, California, USA gallery acquisition dates range from the late 1990s to 2005
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#195314
- Condition: Weathering to surface commensurate with age, but, otherwise, intact and excellent with liberal remaining pigments and rich mineral deposits to surface.
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