Michoacan Sculpture of a Standing Woman - PF.1341,Origin: Michoacan, Mexico,Circa: 400 BC to 100 BC,Dimensions: 4.875" (12.4cm) high x 2" (5.1cm) wide,Collection:  More »

Michoacan Sculpture of a Standing Woman - PF.1341,Origin: Michoacan, Mexico,Circa: 400 BC to 100 BC,Dimensions: 4.875" (12.4cm) high x 2" (5.1cm) wide,Collection: Pre-Columbian,Style: Michoacan,Medium: Terracotta. As we hold this splendid figure in our hands today, we see a human female in her most essential form. Such effigies, whether goddess or mortal, have been created since time began in every part of the world. The reaction this charming woman evokes in us is hardly different from that felt by the people who made her and held her long ago. She represents the beauty and mystery of human existence, the fertile promise of continuity. Her power is ageless, basic as a heartbeat.   « Less

Michoacan Sculpture of a Standing Woman - PF.1392,Origin: Michoacan, Mexico,Circa: 300 BC to 300 AD,Dimensions: 4.25" (10.8cm) high,Collection: Pre-Columbian,Style:  More »

Michoacan Sculpture of a Standing Woman - PF.1392,Origin: Michoacan, Mexico,Circa: 300 BC to 300 AD,Dimensions: 4.25" (10.8cm) high,Collection: Pre-Columbian,Style: Michoacan,Medium: Terracotta. Though her bold symmetry only makes a minimal concession to realism, this abstract woman glows with the energy of human life. Bare breasted, wearing jewelry, and bearing traces of polychrome paint, she was left long ago as a votive gift. Almost certainly, she represents the person who offered her before the Gods, a woman of ancient Mexico. Perhaps this is the only clue remaining to that forgotten human life, the embodiment of hopes and reams not so very different from those we might feel today. Just beneath the surface of the clay, we sense the heartbeat of a vanished world.   « Less

Michoacan Sculpture of a Standing Woman - PF.1393,Origin: Michoacan, Mexico,Circa: 300 BC to 300 AD,Dimensions: 7.5" (19.1cm) high,Collection: Pre-Columbian,Style:  More »

Michoacan Sculpture of a Standing Woman - PF.1393,Origin: Michoacan, Mexico,Circa: 300 BC to 300 AD,Dimensions: 7.5" (19.1cm) high,Collection: Pre-Columbian,Style: Michoacan,Medium: Terracotta. Though her bold symmetry only makes a minimal concession to realism, this abstract woman glows with the energy of human life. Bare breasted, wearing jewelry, and bearing traces of polychrome paint, she was left long ago as a votive gift. Almost certainly, she represents the person who offered her before the Gods, a woman of ancient Mexico. Perhaps this is the only clue remaining to that forgotten human life, the embodiment of hopes and reams not so very different from those we might feel today. Just beneath the surface of the clay, we sense the heartbeat of a vanished world.   « Less

Michoacan Sculpture of a Standing Woman - PF.1394,Origin: Michoacan, Mexico,Circa: 300 BC to 300 AD,Dimensions: 6.25" (15.9cm) high,Collection: Pre-Columbian,Style:  More »

Michoacan Sculpture of a Standing Woman - PF.1394,Origin: Michoacan, Mexico,Circa: 300 BC to 300 AD,Dimensions: 6.25" (15.9cm) high,Collection: Pre-Columbian,Style: Michoacan,Medium: Terracotta. Though her bold symmetry only makes a minimal concession to realism, this abstract woman glows with the energy of human life. Bare breasted, wearing jewelry, and bearing traces of polychrome paint, she was left long ago as a votive gift. Almost certainly, she represents the person who offered her before the Gods, a woman of ancient Mexico. Perhaps this is the only clue remaining to that forgotten human life, the embodiment of hopes and dreams not so very different from those we might feel today. Just beneath the surface of the clay, we sense the heartbeat of a vanished world.   « Less

Michoacan Vessel in the Form of a Seated Man - PF.2033,Origin: Michoacan, Mexico,Circa: 500 BC to 200 BC,Dimensions: 5" (12.7cm) high x 4.5" (11.4cm) wide,Collection:  More »

Michoacan Vessel in the Form of a Seated Man - PF.2033,Origin: Michoacan, Mexico,Circa: 500 BC to 200 BC,Dimensions: 5" (12.7cm) high x 4.5" (11.4cm) wide,Collection: Pre-Columbian,Style: Michoacan,Medium: Terracotta. With lively energy, using a few abstract lines, the artist has delineated the human figure. The hollow cavity suggests that this little sculpture was left as a funerary votive, filled with an offering of food or drink. A further connection to funerary ritual is made by the floral adornments which encircle the head; these appear to be peyote buds used to make connections with the spirit world. Exotic and unfamiliar though such a figure might be, it nonetheless connects us in a direct way with a distant human life not unlike our own.   « Less

Michoacan Sculpture of a Standing Woman - PF.2236,Origin: Michoacan, Mexico,Circa: 500 BC to 100 BC,Dimensions: 4" (10.2cm) high,Collection: Pre-Columbian,Style:  More »

Michoacan Sculpture of a Standing Woman - PF.2236,Origin: Michoacan, Mexico,Circa: 500 BC to 100 BC,Dimensions: 4" (10.2cm) high,Collection: Pre-Columbian,Style: Michoacan,Medium: Terracotta. This image of fertile female is part of a tradition as old as humanity itself. Symbolizing renewal and rebirth, she is the sister to the Astarte of Babylonians, the Isis of the Egyptians and the Venus of the Romans. Her power is as ageless as woman herself. Such a figure might have been buried in a Mexican tomb to insure the continuity of life. Centuries later, in a time and culture vastly different, we still feel her energy.   « Less

Michoacan Sculpture of a Standing Woman - DJ.1038,Origin: Mexico,Circa: 300 BC to 200 AD,Collection: Pre Columbian,Style: Michoacan,Medium: Terracotta.

Michoacan Sculpture of a Standing Woman - DJ.1038,Origin: Mexico,Circa: 300 BC to 200 AD,Collection: Pre Columbian,Style: Michoacan,Medium: Terracotta.   « Less

Colima Sculpture of a Seated Hunchback - PF.0246,Origin: Western Mexico,Circa: 300 BC to 300 AD,Dimensions: 12.25" (31.1cm) high,Catalogue: V2,Collection:  More »

Colima Sculpture of a Seated Hunchback - PF.0246,Origin: Western Mexico,Circa: 300 BC to 300 AD,Dimensions: 12.25" (31.1cm) high,Catalogue: V2,Collection: Pre-Columbian,Style: Colima,Medium: Terracotta. The Colima are part of a group of archaeological cultures – known almost purely from their artworks – referred to as the Western Mexico Shaft Tomb (WMST) tradition. There are many distinct groups within this agglomeration, and their relationships are almost totally obscure due to the lack of contextual information. All of the cultures encompassed under the WMST nomenclature were in the habit of burying their dead in socially-stratified burial chambers at the base of deep shafts, which were in turn often topped by buildings. Originally believed to be influenced by the Tarascan people, who were contemporaries of the Aztecs, thermoluminescence has pushed back the dates of these groups over 1000 years. Although the apogee of this tradition was reached in the last centuries of the 1st millennium BC, it has its origins over 1000 years earlier at sites such as Huitzilapa and Teuchitlan, in the Jalisco region. Little is known of the cultures themselves, although preliminary data seems to suggest that they were sedentary agriculturists with social systems not dissimilar to chiefdoms. These cultures are especially interesting to students of Mesoamerican history as they seem to have been to a large extent outside the ebb and flow of more aggressive cultures – such as the Toltecs, Olmecs and Maya – in the same vicinity. Thus insulated from the perils of urbanization, they developed very much in isolation, and it behooves us to learn what we can from what they have left behind.   « Less

Colima Vessel in the Form of a Squirrel - PF.0415,Origin: Western Mexico,Circa: 300 BC to 300 AD,Dimensions: 7.5" (19.1cm) high,Catalogue: V3,Collection: Pre-Columbian,Style:  More »

Colima Vessel in the Form of a Squirrel - PF.0415,Origin: Western Mexico,Circa: 300 BC to 300 AD,Dimensions: 7.5" (19.1cm) high,Catalogue: V3,Collection: Pre-Columbian,Style: Colima,Medium: Terracotta. The Colima are part of a group of archaeological cultures – known almost purely from their artworks – referred to as the Western Mexico Shaft Tomb (WMST) tradition. There are many distinct groups within this agglomeration, and their relationships are almost totally obscure due to the lack of contextual information. All of the cultures encompassed under the WMST nomenclature were in the habit of burying their dead in socially-stratified burial chambers at the base of deep shafts, which were in turn often topped by buildings. Originally believed to be influenced by the Tarascan people, who were contemporaries of the Aztecs, thermoluminescence has pushed back the dates of these groups over 1000 years. Although the apogee of this tradition was reached in the last centuries of the 1st millennium BC, it has its origins over 1000 years earlier at sites such as Huitzilapa and Teuchitlan, in the Jalisco region. Little is known of the cultures themselves, although preliminary data seems to suggest that they were sedentary agriculturists with social systems not dissimilar to chiefdoms. These cultures are especially interesting to students of Mesoamerican history as they seem to have been to a large extent outside the ebb and flow of more aggressive cultures – such as the Toltecs, Olmecs and Maya – in the same vicinity. Thus insulated from the perils of urbanization, they developed very much in isolation, and it behooves us to learn what we can from what they have left behind.   « Less

Colima Terracotta Figural Group - PF.0536,Origin: Western Mexico,Circa: 300 BC to 300 AD,Catalogue: V2,Collection: Pre-Columbian,Style: Colima,Medium: Terracotta. The Colima  More »

Colima Terracotta Figural Group - PF.0536,Origin: Western Mexico,Circa: 300 BC to 300 AD,Catalogue: V2,Collection: Pre-Columbian,Style: Colima,Medium: Terracotta. The Colima are part of a group of archaeological cultures – known almost purely from their artworks – referred to as the Western Mexico Shaft Tomb (WMST) tradition. There are many distinct groups within this agglomeration, and their relationships are almost totally obscure due to the lack of contextual information. All of the cultures encompassed under the WMST nomenclature were in the habit of burying their dead in socially-stratified burial chambers at the base of deep shafts, which were in turn often topped by buildings. Originally believed to be influenced by the Tarascan people, who were contemporaries of the Aztecs, thermoluminescence has pushed back the dates of these groups over 1000 years. Although the apogee of this tradition was reached in the last centuries of the 1st millennium BC, it has its origins over 1000 years earlier at sites such as Huitzilapa and Teuchitlan, in the Jalisco region. Little is known of the cultures themselves, although preliminary data seems to suggest that they were sedentary agriculturists with social systems not dissimilar to chiefdoms. These cultures are especially interesting to students of Mesoamerican history as they seem to have been to a large extent outside the ebb and flow of more aggressive cultures – such as the Toltecs, Olmecs and Maya – in the same vicinity. Thus insulated from the perils of urbanization, they developed very much in isolation, and it behooves us to learn what we can from what they have left behind.   « Less