Pre Columbian Nayarit Chinesco Polychrome Standing Female

Chinesco, Lagunillas Type, West Mexico, ca. 300 B.C. – 200 A.D.

A powerfully abstracted polychrome earthenware figure of a standing female, her hands drawn in to rest at the waist, legs tapering to tiny stub feet that support the monumental bulk of her rounded hips and thighs. The head is broad and heart-shaped, characteristic of the Lagunillas "Chinesco" tradition of Nayarit, with delicately pinched features, pierced eyes and mouth, and small applied ear tabs. A bold red-slip diagonal band sweeps across the right side of the face in asymmetrical ritual decoration, a hallmark of Lagunillas figural painting, complementing the burnished red slip that covers the body and contrasts with the creamy, mineral-deposited surface of the cranium.

Chinesco figures of the Lagunillas type, so named for their superficial resemblance to East Asian forms noted by early 20th-century collectors, were produced in the shaft-tomb cultures of Nayarit in western Mexico during the Late Preclassic and Early Classic periods. Scholars associate these serene, introspective figures with funerary deposits and initiation or ancestral rites; their smooth burnished surfaces and painted ornament distinguish them from the more costumed Ixtlán del Río tradition.

Dimensions  Height: 9-1/4 inches (approx. 23.5 cm).

Provenance  New York collection of Dr. Arthur and Sherwin Guilder, acquired in the 1980s.