HUASTEC SEATED FIGURE, PANUCO REGION LATE PRECLASSIC-PROTOCLASSIC, CIRCA 300 BC - AD 300

D. Daniel Michel, Chicago, acquired in 1965 (inventory no. 65:116)

Ancient Art of the New World, New York, acquired from the above

American Private Collection, acquired from the above in 1991

PUBLISHED

Everett McNear, High Culture in the Americas before 1500, Chicago, 1982, p. 6, cat. no. 11

The Arts Club of Chicago, High Culture in the Americas before 1500, November 15 - December 31, 1982

Like the preceding lot, this subtle and sensitively modeled figure is a rare example of the exquisite miniature sculpture of Panuco. It appears to be one of the two known "seated personages […] wearing carefully-worked Jacobean-style hats" (Griffin in Goldstein, ed., Ceremonial Sculpture of Veracruz, Brookville, 1987, p. 21).

This figure, which retains the relaxed and dignified bearing of the preceding lot, wears a necklace, ear-spools, and a large hat. Discussing the other figure with a hat, Griffin expresses his belief that the hat "was modeled to the head in clay to leave no doubt as to the identity or rank of the wearer." (ibid.).

See Goldstein, ed., ibid., p. 44, cat. no. 7 for the other figure, once on loan to the Princeton University Art Museum.