Colima Pottery Standing Female Figure

**Originally Listed At $300**

Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Colima, Coahuayana Valley type, Protoclassic Period, ca. 100 BCE to 250 CE. A lovely handmade ceramic figure of flat form depicting an avian-esque female slightly squatting with broad shoulders, bent legs, and long arms falling parallel to her body. Nude for all but two circular earrings, a collar necklace, and headdress with a loop design, her long head displays slit eyes, arched eye brows, a prominent beak-like nose, and a smiling mouth. Two short braids fall along her neck. A lustrous stone burnish beautifully highlights the natural sienna-hued surface of this exemplary piece from Colima culture. Size: 2.25" L x 1.75" W (5.7 cm x 4.4 cm); 6.25" H (15.9 cm) on included custom stand.

Clay figures like this one are the only remains that we have today of a sophisticated and unique culture in West Mexico - they made no above-ground monuments or sculptures, at least that we know of, which is in strong contrast to developments elsewhere in ancient Mesoamerica. Instead, their tombs were their lasting works of art: skeletons arrayed radially with their feet positioned inward, and clay offerings, like this one, placed alongside the walls facing inward, near the skulls. A large effigy like this one most likely would have flanked the entrance to a tomb in a way that archaeologists have interpreted as guarding. Some scholars have interpreted these dynamic sculptures of the living as a strong contrast to the skeletal remains whose space they shared, as if they mediated between the living and the dead.

A nearly identical figure of smaller scale can be found at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College under accession number 1986.151.

Provenance: Private New York Collector from 1966

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#159206
Condition Report: Repaired from several pieces with some break lines and adhesive material visible. Small nick to back. Nice earthen deposits and manganese throughout.