Nayarit Chinesco Pottery Mother and Child

Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Nayarit, ca. 300 BCE to 300 CE. A fine seated pottery figure of a mother with a child sitting on her lap, both enveloped in creamy white paint. Wearing a flat headdress and earrings, the mother displays a flat, rectangular body, tubular limbs, a broad neck, and a large head. Her minimalistic visage features bulging eye and a prominent, triangular nose. The child displays a similar body with only an applied nose shown on its face. Size: 2.625" W x 5.25" H (6.7 cm x 13.3 cm)

This style of sculpture is known as Chinesco by collectors because of its stylistic similarities to Chinese art. 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. 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.

Provenance: private Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA collection; ex-Dr. David Harner collection, Springdale, Arkansas, USA, acquired between the 1950s and 1960s

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#163589
Condition Report: Expected surface wear as shown. Otherwise, intact and excellent with nice remains of pigment.