Jalisco Pottery Seated Woman Carrying Olla on Shoulder

Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Jalisco. A hollow pottery figure of a seated woman balances a round olla on her left shoulder and steadies it with a hand of finely incised fingers. Her short right arm reaches outward. She is bare-chested, with full breasts, and a red-slipped skirt wraps her lower body above her tucked legs. The tall, elongated head is topped by a coiffure bound with a headband. Her long, aquiline nose carries a nose ring, and banded ear ornaments frame a face with heavy-lidded eyes. A cream slip covers the skin. Red pigment marks a line down the sternum, a necklace, and stripes on the vessel, perhaps showing jewelry or body paint. Figures like this were likely placed in shaft tomb burials. The woman carrying water was a recurring theme in West Mexican clay sculpture. The shaft tomb tradition of Jalisco, Nayarit, and Colima takes its name from deep vertical shafts cut into volcanic bedrock. These shafts open into chambers where the dead were laid with offerings, often including hollow ceramic figures. Jalisco figures in the Ameca-Etzatlan manner are known for long, narrow heads, pronounced noses, and cream slips with red detail. Unlike the elaborate gods of central Mexico, these figures show ordinary people: warriors, musicians, couples, and women with vessels. Scholars still debate whether they show particular people, ancestors, or social roles. Item # 205657

Estimate:£415.75

View all items fromArtemis Fine ArtsorEthnographical