Veracruz, Los Tuxtlas, Polychrome Plate with Deer Motif, Early Post-Classic, ca. A.D. 900-1200

Veracruz, Los Tuxtlas, Polychrome Plate with Deer Motif, Early Post-Classic, ca. A.D. 900-1200
height 2 1/2in (6.4cm); diameter 11 1/4in (28.6cm)

Provenance
Robert and Marianne Huber, Dixon, Illinois
D. Daniel Michel Collection, Chicago (#69-153)
Ancient Art of the New World, New York
American Private Collection, acquired in 1991

Published
Wardwell, Allen, Notes on the Los Tuxtlas Style, Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, Vol. 7, 1972, figs 11, 12 and 15D

Wardwell notes (Ibid., p. 1) "The pre-Hispanic art of Mexico's Gulf Zone, which is today occupied by the state of Veracruz, is flamboyant, free, and curvilinear in style. In this regard it bears some relationship to the art of the neighboring Maya, but it is distinctive for it extroverted nature, and is clearly recognizable as an expression of its own."

Of the present work, Wardwell notes (Ibid., p. 79), "A unique design is shown on the dish from the Michel collection in Chicago. An animal is painted standing in profile, looking backwards with the now familiar plume forms added at the end of the nose and extending from the tip of the ear. Underneath the body of the animal is a large space filler in the form of a motif with two scrolls at the ends and decorated with designs formed of spots in circular forms. The mouth of the animal is opened, showing two teeth and an extended tongue and the neck is slender. In all likelihood, the animal represented is a deer."