Tall Pair Jalisco San Juanito Pottery Standing Females

Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Jalisco, San Juanito, ca. 100 BCE to 250 CE. A striking pair of very large standing terracotta figures, with very similar phenotypes - characteristically attenuated arms, oversized feet, and enlarged head - as well as parallel ornaments - both with pellets adorning the shoulders, armlets, and elaborate earrings. Furthermore, their visages are nearly identical, presenting slit eyes, a pronounced nose, and parted lips revealing delineated teeth. In addition, both figures are topless but don a loin cloth below. The figure wearing an applied wrapped textile headdress is embellished with burnished cream and red slip, while the figure boasting a neatly incised/combed coiffure with burnished black and red slip. An impressively handbuilt, beautifully decorated, and sizeable pare of Jalisco tomb figures. Size: figure with combed coiffure 9.5" W x 19.75" H (24.1 cm x 50.2 cm); figure with headdress is just about the same size

This type of Jalisco figure - with an elongated, somewhat tubular head and slit eyes has been attributed to the region of San Juanito located approximately fifty miles west of Guadalajara (Jose Parres Arias, "Nuevas acquisiciones del Museo de Arqueologia." Eco 12, 1962).

For a similar example, see figure 80 in "Sculpture of Ancient West Mexico: Nayarit - Jalisco - Colima" Catalogue of the Proctor Stafford Collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1989, p. 115.

Provenance: ex Collection of Mary K. F. Leong, Washington, USA, acquired from The Lands Beyond Gallery New York, New York, USA 1970s

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#153074 Dimensions: Condition Report: Figures have been professionally repaired from multiple pieces with restoration over the break lines. Figure with headdress: Loss to central area of headdress, toe of left foot, a couple of shoulder pellets, and fingers of right hand. Both show expected surface wear commensurate with age and nicks to noses and other high-pointed areas. Surfaces present nice burnishing marks and deposits.