Two Colima Figures with Removable Headdresses, Tuxcacuesco-Ortices Region, Late Preclassic, circa 300 - 100 BC

James Bodisbaugh, Los Angeles
Gray and Patsy R. Taylor, Greenwich, acquired from the above in December, 1972

The Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Life, Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Mexico, April 19 - November 3, 1991

Important village ceremonies of ball games, curing practices, and other ritual events are vividly depicted in the solid figurines and village models from the Colima and Jalisco regions. The musicians and dancers are attired in detailed clothing and ornaments, providing the most precise references to these ancient practices. Some figures were made to be active participants in the actual events, serving as figural whistles by the slit in the top of the head. These figures were to be placed within anecdotal group scenes on their small stabilizing platforms.

The two musicians here wear fine ceremonial attire and tall brimmed removable headdresses. Each headdress has a mask that covers the wearer's face, adding to the element of impersonation or clan identification of the performer; one cap retains the small peccary perched on top. One figure holds a tasseled rattle in each hand, and his partner’s arms are raised in moving opposition. Their clothing and jewelry include a short textured cape and vest, fringed and generously folded woven sashes, long bead necklace bibs, small chest masks, and stiff leg and arm-bands, perhaps of shell.

For similar figures, see Richard F. Townsend, ed., Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past, Chicago, 1998, p. 257, fig. 6 cat. no. 100; see also Mireille Holsbeke and Karel Arnaut, Offerings for a New Life: Funerary Images from Pre-Columbian West Mexico, Antwerp, 1998, pp. 120-121, fig. 51.