Exhibited Jalisco Ameca Grey Pottery Female Figure

Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Jalisco, Ameca Grey type, Protoclassic Period, ca. 100 BCE to 250 CE. A fabulous hollow-bodied pottery statue depicting a kneeling female with a skirt covering the tops of her folded knees. Her nude torso bears hemispherical breasts beneath raised shoulders as she holds one arm behind her head and the other out in front with an open palm, perhaps in a defensive gesticulation. Her elongated head exhibits a wide-eyed countenance with a sharply crested aquiline nose, incised 'teeth' within parted lips, and triangular ears adorned with cylindrical plugs, all beneath intersecting headwrap strands and a crested coiffure. The torso and arms of the highly burnished figure are accentuated with crimson-hued slip that contrasts nicely against the cream-colored ground, and traces of yellow pigment remains are visible on the central discoid medallion on her brow. Size: 9.4" W x 18.125" H (23.9 cm x 46 cm)

Clay figures like this example 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 these, placed alongside the walls facing inward, near the skulls. Large effigy figures like this would most likely have flanked the entrance to a tomb in a way that archaeologists have interpreted as guarding. Some scholars have connected 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.

Exhibited in the University of St. Thomas Art Gallery.

For a strikingly similar example with lowered arms and scarification pellets on the shoulders, please see The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 1979.355.

For another strikingly similar example, please see: Kan, Michael, Clement Meighan, and H.B. Nicholson. "Sculpture of Ancient West Mexico: Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima | A Catalogue of the Proctor Stafford Collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art." Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1989, p. 109, fig. 69.

Provenance: ex-private collection of the late Father Bader, University of St. Thomas, Houston, Texas, USA; exhibited in the University of St. Thomas Art Gallery, acquired prior to 2000

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 to most countries and handle all shipping in-house for your convenience.

#154374
Condition Report: Professional repair to tip of nose, two or three exterior fingers on left hand, and left ear, with resurfacing and overpainting along break lines. Nicks and minor abrasions to base, both hands, and face, with fading and chipping to original pigmentation, and light encrustations. Nice traces of original pigment throughout, and great craquelure to areas of original slip, particularly on red pigment.