Nayarit Seated Couple, Ixtlán del Río Style, Protoclassic, 100 BC - AD 250

Estimate

25,000 - 35,000 USD

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Description

terracotta
Heights: 11 1/4 in each (28.5 cm)

Provenance

Joseph Haddad, Los Angeles
Edwin and Cherie Silver, Los Angeles, acquired from the above on October 9, 1972

Inventoried by Hasso von Winning, November 2, 1972, no. 100, a and b

Exhibited

Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA, Los Angeles, Companions of the Dead: Ceramic Tomb Sculpture from Ancient West Mexico, October 11 - November 27, 1983

Literature

Hasso von Winning, The Shaft Tomb Figures of West Mexico, Los Angeles, 1974, p. 167, fig. 290
Jacki Gallagher, Companions of the Dead: Ceramic Tomb Sculpture from Ancient West Mexico, Los Angeles, 1983, p. 114, fig. 145

Catalogue Note

The high level of workmanship and attention to detail in this unusual couple attests to their ancestral and social significance. Within the types of Ixtlán figures, "[p]erhaps the most distinctive substyle consists of male-female pairs with broad, square bodies and small rounded heads” (Gallagher, Companions of the Dead, 1983, p. 106).

This couple is one of three pairs known, all physically anomalous yet displaying the conventional attributes and accoutrements for male/ female pairs. With heads cocked and enlarged whitened eyes, they portray otherworldly qualities. Each has black geometric facial tattoos covering the entire face with raised shoulder tattoos framed within dark diamond-shapes. Lumholtz illustrated the facial designs of the Huichol during certain pilgrimages (Fig. 1) and described them as the masks of gods, with specific designs representing elements such as serpents, clouds and rain (Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico, 1902, p. 141).

The figures have identical tiny overlapping earrings cascading along the lobes; the female’s finely striated coiffure is held with a single striped band while the male figure has a pelt headband with triple extensions over the back of the head. Her wraparound skirt is patterned with undulating serpents with triangular heads, the design completely covering her skirt underneath; his shoulder tunic (known ethnographically as a tilmatli) is similarly patterned. The male does not wear a scoop loincloth.

For the two closely related couples, see Gallagher, Companions of the Dead, 1983, p. 115, fig. 146, and von Winning, Shaft Tomb Figures, 1974, fig. 286; for a joined figure of this style in the Diego Rivera collection, see Artes de Mexico, Anahuacalli, Museo Diego Rivera, numero 64/65, p. 96.