Lot 203
Pre-Columbian, Mexico and Guatemala, Olmec culture, ca. 1150 to 550 BCE. An incredible cream-colored ceramic vessel, of a squat form, with a fantastical zoomorphic, feline face and body depicted on the exterior. On one side is the highly abstract back end of the feline, which has a pseudo-glyph form; on the other is a more naturalistic face with narrowed eyes, a large snout, two long canines, and an open mouth with dangling tongue. Between these two sides are crosshatched panels. Red cinnabar coloring remains in some of the incised lines. Olmec vessels like this were portable objects that traveled around their area of influence to places like Tlatilco, Tlapacoya, Las Bocas, and San Jose Mogote, transmitting Olmec iconography like the ones sculpted here. The feline image was used throughout pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, Central America, and South America as a stand in for a deity/ruler who was intimidating, powerful, and could be violent if they chose to be. Size: 4.7" W x 3.45" H (11.9 cm x 8.8 cm)
The Olmec are the ancestors of all Mesoamerican civilizations, and their artistic style, practiced in the tropical lowlands of south central Mexico and diffused outward through extensive trade networks that stretched into northern Mexico and central America, was inspirational for those who came after. The Olmec style became synonymous with elite status in the highlands. They created enormous stone heads, probably the first thing many of us think of when we remember the Olmec, but they also made smaller objects of incredible artistry like this one. They lacked a written language, and as a result, we may never know the definitive meaning of their exceptional artwork.
Compare to an example of a similar-shaped bowl at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1979.206.367).
Provenance: private R.D. collection, Long Beach, California, USA, acquired over twenty five years from various major galleries
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#124288
- Condition: Repaired probe hole on lower edge, but repair is well done and difficult to see.
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