Tall Nayarit Ixtlan Del Rio Standing Female Figure

Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Nayarit, Ixtlan Del Rio style, Protoclassic Period, ca. 100 BCE to 250 CE. A wonderful hand-built pottery female figure standing upon stocky feet and delineated legs. Her distended abdomen is wrapped with a knee-length skirt decorated with polychrome stepped panels, and a pair of concentric zigzagging stripes course across her concave chest and perky breasts. A large olla with white spots rests atop her shoulder, and her other ringlet-adorned arm is held aloft with an outward-facing palm. The stylized visage is comprised of heavy-lidded ovoid eyes, a prominent nose adorned with a pair of plugs, a narrow mouth with incised teeth, and tall ears with enormous multi-lobed earrings, all beneath a thick head wrap with white-painted striations. Deep red slip covers the entire figure and imbues it with a presentation characteristic of ancient West Mexico. Size: 10.5" W x 18.75" H (26.7 cm x 47.6 cm).

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 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.

For a stylistically-similar example, please see The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 2005.255.3: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/319004

Provenance: ex-Dr. Raymond Thomas collection, Arizona, USA, 1980s

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#145120
Condition Report: Repair to top of head, areas of feet, and some fingers, with restoration to nose, and some earring ringlets, with resurfacing and overpainting along break lines. Losses to some fingers, tips of nose plugs, and feet, nicks and abrasions to legs, body, arms, and head, with fading to original pigmentation, and light encrustations. Nice earthen deposits and great manganese blooms throughout.