Chontal Stone Standing Figure with Openwork Arms, GuerreroPre-Columbian, Mexico, Guerrero,...
Chontal Stone Standing Figure with Openwork Arms, GuerreroPre-Columbian, Mexico, Guerrero, Chontal, ca. 200 BCE – 200 CE. A standing figure pared to its essentials, carved from creamy gray stone with pale veining. The head is dominated by a heavy angular nose and a jutting muzzle-like face, the eyes and mouth cut as shallow recesses, with drilled perforations at the ears. Both arms fold across the abdomen, hands meeting above a grooved band, and the sculptor opened narrow slots between arms and torso by drilling a row of holes and linking them, a laborious technique that frees the limbs from the block. Grooved incisions define the legs and separate them below a plain, unarticulated body. Figures of this austere type, produced by the stone carvers of the Guerrero highlands, likely served as offerings, deposited in caches or in graves rather than displayed. Size: 3" W x 8.75" H (7.6 cm W x 22.2 cm H).
The rugged interior of Guerrero produced one of the most abstract sculptural traditions in ancient Mesoamerica. Working hard metamorphic and igneous stone with string saws, drills, and abrasives rather than metal tools, Chontal and neighboring Mezcala carvers reduced the human body to a system of planes, grooves, and slots. Openwork of the kind seen here, in which arms are separated from the torso by conjoined drill holes, represents the most technically demanding solution in the repertoire: each perforation had to be bored from both faces and then worried into a continuous slit without fracturing the thin bridge of stone that remained.
Such figures were long known only from looted contexts, but comparable carvings have been recovered from caches and burials, and the Aztec later collected Guerrero stonework as antiquities in its own right, depositing examples as offerings in the Templo Mayor at Tenochtitlan.
Provenance: Collection of Dr. Reuven Livny, Israel. To family by descent. Ex. Arte Primitivo auction 55, September, 2010, lot 2. Ex. Sotheby’s sale, May 9, 2006, lot 158. Listed there as ex. “Andre Schoeller, Paris, 1950’s” and then “property from a European Private Collection”.
SHIPPING: We coordinate worldwide shipping in-house through specialist international forwarders experienced with fine art and antiquities customs manifests. International buyers must confirm, prior to bidding, that their country's customs authority will accept the item. All duties, taxes, clearance fees, and any costs arising from customs delays, seizures, re-export, returns, or loss in transit are the buyer's sole responsibility. Artemis assumes no liability for items refused entry, detained, or lost after export. We cannot ship ancient items to their country of origin (Egyptian to Egypt, Greek to Greece, etc.).
PAYMENT EXCEPTION: For clients not previously established with Artemis, payment for all gold, precious metal, and gemstone lots must be made by bank wire transfer or certified bank check/money order, without exception.
Item #73014Excellent ancient surface patina and overall scattered surface deposits. Some ancient loss to his nose and right leg cleanly reattached, otherwise intact.
Chontal Stone Standing Figure with Openwork Arms, GuerreroPre-Columbian, Mexico, Guerrero, Chontal, ca. 200 BCE – 200 CE. A standing figure pared to its essentials, carved from creamy gray stone with pale veining. The head is dominated by a heavy angular nose and a jutting muzzle-like face, the eyes and mouth cut as shallow recesses, with drilled perforations at the ears. Both arms fold across the abdomen, hands meeting above a grooved band, and the sculptor opened narrow slots between arms and torso by drilling a row of holes and linking them, a laborious technique that frees the limbs from the block. Grooved incisions define the legs and separate them below a plain, unarticulated body. Figures of this austere type, produced by the stone carvers of the Guerrero highlands, likely served as offerings, deposited in caches or in graves rather than displayed. Size: 3" W x 8.75" H (7.6 cm W x 22.2 cm H).
The rugged interior of Guerrero produced one of the most abstract sculptural traditions in ancient Mesoamerica. Working hard metamorphic and igneous stone with string saws, drills, and abrasives rather than metal tools, Chontal and neighboring Mezcala carvers reduced the human body to a system of planes, grooves, and slots. Openwork of the kind seen here, in which arms are separated from the torso by conjoined drill holes, represents the most technically demanding solution in the repertoire: each perforation had to be bored from both faces and then worried into a continuous slit without fracturing the thin bridge of stone that remained.
Such figures were long known only from looted contexts, but comparable carvings have been recovered from caches and burials, and the Aztec later collected Guerrero stonework as antiquities in its own right, depositing examples as offerings in the Templo Mayor at Tenochtitlan.
Provenance: Collection of Dr. Reuven Livny, Israel. To family by descent. Ex. Arte Primitivo auction 55, September, 2010, lot 2. Ex. Sotheby’s sale, May 9, 2006, lot 158. Listed there as ex. “Andre Schoeller, Paris, 1950’s” and then “property from a European Private Collection”.
SHIPPING: We coordinate worldwide shipping in-house through specialist international forwarders experienced with fine art and antiquities customs manifests. International buyers must confirm, prior to bidding, that their country's customs authority will accept the item. All duties, taxes, clearance fees, and any costs arising from customs delays, seizures, re-export, returns, or loss in transit are the buyer's sole responsibility. Artemis assumes no liability for items refused entry, detained, or lost after export. We cannot ship ancient items to their country of origin (Egyptian to Egypt, Greek to Greece, etc.).
PAYMENT EXCEPTION: For clients not previously established with Artemis, payment for all gold, precious metal, and gemstone lots must be made by bank wire transfer or certified bank check/money order, without exception.
Item #73014Excellent ancient surface patina and overall scattered surface deposits. Some ancient loss to his nose and right leg cleanly reattached, otherwise intact.
