Tlatilco Standing Figure, possibly Santa Cruz region, Early Preclassic, circa 1200 - 900 BC

Judith Small Galleries, New York

Jay C. Leff, Uniontown, Pennsylvania, acquired from the above in the late 1960s

Judith Small Nash, New York

Acquired from the above circa 1988

The large hollow figures from the Tlatilco, Santa Cruz and Morelos regions form an important transition from the Early Preclassic solid figurines to the large hollow figures of Western Mexico. This seemingly plain and innocent figure of child-like form with diminutive arms and delicate features including distinctive eyes with pierced pupils, is sculpted with the enigmatic abstract emblem across the back of the head, referred to as the “Displayed Deity”. It is an emblem of the Preclassic supernatural figure associated with fertility.

For a discussion of the iconography of the sculpted and painted emblems, see Douglas E. Bradley and Peter David Joralemon, The Lords of Life: The Iconography of Power and Fertility in Preclassic Mesoamerica, Notre Dame, Indiana, 1992, pp. 17-29. For a closely related figure, see Michael D. Coe, The Jaguar’s Children: Preclassic Central Mexico, New York, 1965, p. 99, fig. 179.

See lots 15 and 18 for other figures of this type in the Lazar collection.