Three Costa Rican Polychrome Figures - Nude Female & Vessels
Pre-Columbian, Costa Rica, Greater Nicoya, ca. 900–1500 CE. A trio of buff-slipped ceramics painted in the black and red-orange vocabulary of Greater Nicoya. The largest is a round-bottomed jar modeled as a bird, its head and flaring tail rendered as opposed lugs, the swollen body banded with chevrons and hatched triangles. The mid-sized tripod stands on tapering supports, its zoomorphic profile suggesting a dog or similar quadruped, girdled by panels of stepped rectangles and dotted lozenges. Smallest is a seated nude female, legs splayed, hands resting on her knees, her brow and limbs striped with body-paint or tattoo designs and her sex frankly indicated. Vessels of this class served in feasting and mortuary deposit, while such figures likely embodied fertility and lineage, buried alongside the dead as companions in the passage beyond. Size of largest: 3.4" H x 5" Diam (8.6 cm H x 12.7 cm Diam); Size of figure: 3.66" H x 3.6" W x 2.3" D (9.3 cm H x 9.1 cm W x 5.8 cm D).
The Greater Nicoya zone, spanning the Guanacaste peninsula of Costa Rica and the Pacific littoral of Nicaragua, produced some of the most inventive polychrome traditions in lower Central America. Potters there worked without the wheel, coiling and paddling their forms before burnishing a pale cream slip and painting in iron-rich reds and manganese blacks. The painted stripes and geometric fields that cover the seated female almost certainly record real body decoration: early Spanish chroniclers described Nicoyan and Chorotega peoples marking themselves with pigment and tattoo, patterns that signaled rank, clan, and readiness for ceremony. Their pottery moved widely along Pacific exchange routes, and the resulting shared repertoire of animal effigies and banded geometry links workshops across a broad stretch of coast.
Provenance: private Missoula, Montana, USA collection, by inheritance; ex-private Owens collection, Colorado, USA, assembled 1950s to 1960s
A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
SHIPPING: We coordinate worldwide shipping in-house through specialist international forwarders experienced with fine art and antiquities customs manifests. International buyers must confirm, prior to bidding, that their country's customs authority will accept the item. All duties, taxes, clearance fees, and any costs arising from customs delays, seizures, re-export, returns, or loss in transit are the buyer's sole responsibility. Artemis assumes no liability for items refused entry, detained, or lost after export. We cannot ship ancient items to their country of origin (Egyptian to Egypt, Greek to Greece, etc.).For those not using LiveAuctioneers' Live Ship program, Artemis Fine Arts offers expert in-house packing and worldwide shipping. With over 20 years of experience, our team provides careful, reliable, and affordable service. For a quick quote on this lot, please contact support@artemisfinearts.com prior to the auction, or call 720-890-7700.
PAYMENT EXCEPTION: For clients not previously established with Artemis, payment for all gold, precious metal, and gemstone lots must be made by bank wire transfer or certified bank check/money order, without exception.
Item #204264
Condition
Figure has small chip reattached at posterior with break line visible. Tripod jar has been repaired from several pieces with chipping along visible break lines. Largest is intact with a few stable hairline fissures. All have expected surface wear, but, otherwise, nice presentations with good remaining pigments and detail.
Pre-Columbian, Costa Rica, Greater Nicoya, ca. 900–1500 CE. A trio of buff-slipped ceramics painted in the black and red-orange vocabulary of Greater Nicoya. The largest is a round-bottomed jar modeled as a bird, its head and flaring tail rendered as opposed lugs, the swollen body banded with chevrons and hatched triangles. The mid-sized tripod stands on tapering supports, its zoomorphic profile suggesting a dog or similar quadruped, girdled by panels of stepped rectangles and dotted lozenges. Smallest is a seated nude female, legs splayed, hands resting on her knees, her brow and limbs striped with body-paint or tattoo designs and her sex frankly indicated. Vessels of this class served in feasting and mortuary deposit, while such figures likely embodied fertility and lineage, buried alongside the dead as companions in the passage beyond. Size of largest: 3.4" H x 5" Diam (8.6 cm H x 12.7 cm Diam); Size of figure: 3.66" H x 3.6" W x 2.3" D (9.3 cm H x 9.1 cm W x 5.8 cm D).
The Greater Nicoya zone, spanning the Guanacaste peninsula of Costa Rica and the Pacific littoral of Nicaragua, produced some of the most inventive polychrome traditions in lower Central America. Potters there worked without the wheel, coiling and paddling their forms before burnishing a pale cream slip and painting in iron-rich reds and manganese blacks. The painted stripes and geometric fields that cover the seated female almost certainly record real body decoration: early Spanish chroniclers described Nicoyan and Chorotega peoples marking themselves with pigment and tattoo, patterns that signaled rank, clan, and readiness for ceremony. Their pottery moved widely along Pacific exchange routes, and the resulting shared repertoire of animal effigies and banded geometry links workshops across a broad stretch of coast.
Provenance: private Missoula, Montana, USA collection, by inheritance; ex-private Owens collection, Colorado, USA, assembled 1950s to 1960s
A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
SHIPPING: We coordinate worldwide shipping in-house through specialist international forwarders experienced with fine art and antiquities customs manifests. International buyers must confirm, prior to bidding, that their country's customs authority will accept the item. All duties, taxes, clearance fees, and any costs arising from customs delays, seizures, re-export, returns, or loss in transit are the buyer's sole responsibility. Artemis assumes no liability for items refused entry, detained, or lost after export. We cannot ship ancient items to their country of origin (Egyptian to Egypt, Greek to Greece, etc.).For those not using LiveAuctioneers' Live Ship program, Artemis Fine Arts offers expert in-house packing and worldwide shipping. With over 20 years of experience, our team provides careful, reliable, and affordable service. For a quick quote on this lot, please contact support@artemisfinearts.com prior to the auction, or call 720-890-7700.
PAYMENT EXCEPTION: For clients not previously established with Artemis, payment for all gold, precious metal, and gemstone lots must be made by bank wire transfer or certified bank check/money order, without exception.
Item #204264
Condition
Figure has small chip reattached at posterior with break line visible. Tripod jar has been repaired from several pieces with chipping along visible break lines. Largest is intact with a few stable hairline fissures. All have expected surface wear, but, otherwise, nice presentations with good remaining pigments and detail.
