Nayarit Ixtlan del Rio Style Seated Musician Playing a Rasp

Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Nayarit, Ixtlan del Rio style. A hollow earthenware figure of a seated man, legs crossed beneath him, playing a notched rasp. He holds the instrument upright at his left side, his right arm reaching across his chest to draw it into play. His lips open into a small round ring, as though he is singing or chanting to the scraping beat. A wide, flaring band headdress crowns the head, and a large nose ornament hangs over the mouth. He wears ear ornaments, a thick banded collar, wrist cuffs, and a loincloth with a long front flap. Applied ringed eyes and a long, ridged nose define the face, set against a mottled reddish brown surface. The figure may depict a performer at funerary or community rites, perhaps a singer, a ritual specialist, or both at once. Figures of this kind belong to the shaft tomb tradition of ancient West Mexico. Communities cut deep vertical shafts into bedrock that opened onto burial chambers, and they placed hollow ceramic figures there with the dead. Southern Nayarit produced several regional styles, and the Ixtlan del Rio manner is known for its stylized, often angular figures loaded with applied jewelry. Musicians are a recurring subject in these tombs, shown with drums, rattles, conch trumpets, and rasps. A rasp is a scraped instrument: a stick drawn across a row of notches cut into bone, wood, or shell makes a rhythmic rattle. Such figures likely record the music that went with funerals and other communal ceremonies. Item # 205640

Estimate:£453.68

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