Jalisco Ameca Pottery Figure - Female Atop Male

Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Jalisco, Ameca Grey type, ca. 300 BCE to 300 CE. An intriguing, hand-built pottery figure with highly burnished surfaces and fine traces of orange-brown pigment. The focus of this piece is on the domineering female figure riding atop a kneeling figure. The kneeling figure has bent legs, a wide torso, and arms lazily placed beneath the chin. The nude woman surmounting the kneeler has attenuated arms, globular breasts, and rounded shoulders. Her focused visage is composed of coffee-bean-shaped eyes, an aquiline nose, parted lips, and cupped ears, all beneath a V-shaped hairline. Though the kneeling figure is in a submissive position, it does not appear as though they are a slave or captive based on their lounging pose. Size: 7.75" L x 5" W x 9.25" H (19.7 cm x 12.7 cm x 23.5 cm).

For a stylistically similar example of an Ameca Grey Jalisco figure, 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. 110, fig. 71.

Provenance: ex-private southern California, USA collection acquired before 1990

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#150173 Dimensions: Condition Report: Repaired from multiple large pieces, with resurfacing and overpainting along break lines. Minor abrasions to both figures, base, and heads, with darkening and fading to areas of original pigmentation, and light encrustations within some recessed areas. Nice earthen deposits and light manganese blooms throughout.