Rare Huari Wood Panel w/ Face
Pre-Columbian, Peru, Huari/Wari culture, ca. 500 to 1000 CE. A fascinating wooden panel featuring a high relief carved wooden head with full lips, a protruding hook nose, black pupils in white-painted eyes, and a simple headband painted white with black motifs that are faded but still visible in places. Surrounding the head - which is slightly offset of center in the panel - are complex motifs of zoomorphic creatures, eyes, plants, and other things painted with black outlines and white and pale red details. One vertical side features six drilled perforations for attaching this panel to something - perhaps a pole to be hoisted in a procession. The item is displayed in a custom shadow box. Size of panel: 6.75" W x 8.75" H (17.1 cm x 22.2 cm); size of shadow box: 3" L x 13.1" W x 13.1" H (7.6 cm x 33.3 cm x 33.3 cm)
Who does this head represent? The Huari, from their large urban center north of modern day Ayacucho, colonized a diverse group of people in the Andes. Part of the evidence for their colonization efforts - beyond the standardized architecture throughout their empire - is the presence of iconographically similar pottery, textiles, and, more rarely, wooden carvings like this one found mainly in burials throughout the region. Human heads with distinctive facial decoration and caps are a common motif; this may relate to the use of human heads as trophy objects, or perhaps for the veneration of ancestors, a common theme in Huari (and other Peruvian) artwork. Some have suggested that these heads and specifically their attire - like the white headband on this one - showed rank in the complex imperial structure that the Huari created.
Provenance: ex-private T. Misenhimer collection, Beverly Hills, California, USA, collected from 1970-2008
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.
#150904
Condition Report: Losses to peripheries as shown, but overall in remarkable condition for a wooden artifact of that age. Much of the original pigment remains. One lower corner has been repaired. Light deposits on the surface.
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Pre-Columbian, Peru, Huari/Wari culture, ca. 500 to 1000 CE. A fascinating wooden panel featuring a high relief carved wooden head with full lips, a protruding hook nose, black pupils in white-painted eyes, and a simple headband painted white with black motifs that are faded but still visible in places. Surrounding the head - which is slightly offset of center in the panel - are complex motifs of zoomorphic creatures, eyes, plants, and other things painted with black outlines and white and pale red details. One vertical side features six drilled perforations for attaching this panel to something - perhaps a pole to be hoisted in a procession. The item is displayed in a custom shadow box. Size of panel: 6.75" W x 8.75" H (17.1 cm x 22.2 cm); size of shadow box: 3" L x 13.1" W x 13.1" H (7.6 cm x 33.3 cm x 33.3 cm)
Who does this head represent? The Huari, from their large urban center north of modern day Ayacucho, colonized a diverse group of people in the Andes. Part of the evidence for their colonization efforts - beyond the standardized architecture throughout their empire - is the presence of iconographically similar pottery, textiles, and, more rarely, wooden carvings like this one found mainly in burials throughout the region. Human heads with distinctive facial decoration and caps are a common motif; this may relate to the use of human heads as trophy objects, or perhaps for the veneration of ancestors, a common theme in Huari (and other Peruvian) artwork. Some have suggested that these heads and specifically their attire - like the white headband on this one - showed rank in the complex imperial structure that the Huari created.
Provenance: ex-private T. Misenhimer collection, Beverly Hills, California, USA, collected from 1970-2008
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.
#150904
Condition Report: Losses to peripheries as shown, but overall in remarkable condition for a wooden artifact of that age. Much of the original pigment remains. One lower corner has been repaired. Light deposits on the surface.
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Time, Location
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