The Guennol Olmec figure was described as "one of the most diagnostic portrayals of the Olmec Rain God" when it was presented in the important exhibition of Olmec art at the Princeton University Art Museum in 1995.¹ The Rain deity, along with the maize god, had the most "pervasive and profound continuity" in Mesoamerican religious iconography.² Agricultural abundance was ensured with life-giving water and rain, enabling the maize surplus that created the growth and dominance of the Olmec culture.

The Olmec culture influenced developing regions of Mesoamerica beginning in 1800 BC. From the “heartland sites” on the Gulf Coast region of Southern Veracruz and Tabasco, the power of Olmec art and iconography was evident in the Highlands of Oaxaca down to the Pacific slopes of Guatemala and areas of Central America.

The Guennol Olmec figure evokes a sense of awe and magic, whether seen as a masked shaman invoking the deity, or as a fully formed and independent agent. The tale of its ownership as early as 1918 has yet to be fully unraveled, but the serpentine figure quickly became part of a movement to recognize what constitutes the "Olmec style", and move away from the label of "primitive art" into a more inclusive acknowledgement of fine sculpture. The Martin’s generous lending of art from their collects ion enabled the Guennol Olmec figure to land in the stewardship of Gordon Ekholm at the American Museum of Natural History in 1952. Miguel Covarrubias included the iconic black and white photograph of the figure in his 1957 Indian Art of Mexico and Central America. The figure was illustrated in El Pueblo del jaguar by Román Piña Chán and Luis Covarrubias (with drawings by Miguel Covarrubias) in 1964, discussing the strong feline element of the deity. As scholarship deepened over the next 70 years, the Guennol figure took pride of place in Karl A. Taube’s important revision of the Covarrubias diagram, tracing the evolution of the Mesoamerican rain god. This early version of the diagnostic trait of the snarling feline mask takes form in centuries following as the Maya rain deity Chaak, the Zapotec Cocijo, and the Central Mexican Tlaloc.

The Guennol figure is exceptional for the level of ceremonial regalia it bears, both in the cost.mes and in the act of carrying the sacred bundle. A key feature of the Olmec rain god, as seen on the Guennol figure, is the fierce and snarling snout of a supernatural figure based on the jaguar. The jaguar was the most feared and powerful animal in Mesoamerica, connecting one to supernatural strength and authority. The rounded muscular eyelids are also associated with feline features. In contrast to the prominent snout are the delicate, incised T-shaped motifs on the checks, considered symbols of a cave mouth, an area associated with the source of rain and the underworld.

The layered coiffure and striated beard are both elements associated with a shaman in a transformation to their supernatural counterparts. The elaborate tiers of hair on this figure are seen in a similar style on two kneeling figures considered shamans in transformation, the ‘tonsured’ coiffure on the figure in the Princeton University Art Museum collects ion, and the two tiers of striated hair on the "Hauberg" figure at Dumbarton Oaks.³ The dramatic rounded projection on the front of the head is flanked by swelling scrolled forms, references to swirling clouds and possibly even the whorls of shells.

The delicately incised cape draped across the back of the figure with scalloped lines may signify feathers, as seen on the feathered cape of the seated royal figure from Rio Pesquero at Dumbarton Oaks.⁴ These scalloped lines have also been referred to as water symbols.

The Guennol figure reverentially carries a bundle of pliant quetzal feathers, harnessing the cosmic force of sky, wind and ultimately rain. The posture suggests it is an offering as much as a stat.mes nt of ownership and wealth. Ceremonial bars and bundled objects were considered agents of potency and were ‘magically empowered objects”.⁵ Carrying a sacred bundle was perhaps the most visible sign of a ceremonial performance affirming status, authority and religious might. On other Olmec figures, sacred bundles were composed of vegetation, stylized effigies, or formed compact and somewhat abstract feathered maize fetishes.⁶

Feathers
Feathers are a rare and precious commodity, requiring coordinated resources to procure. The quetzal bird (Pharomachrus mocinno) has exceptionally long plumes with a distinctive and luscious green iridescent color. The modern range of their habitat is centered in the Southern Highlands at a 300-400 ft. range, far from the ancient heartland areas of the Olmec world. Quetzals could not be raised in captivity and required experienced hunters to capture, pluck and release male birds. Perhaps the most alluring aspect of quetzal tail feathers is the materiality of their rich, iridescent color and the fragile yet flexible structure of the extraordinarily long plumes.

In later Maya t.mes s, the importance of feathers in cost.mes and ornamentation can not be overstated; feathers and even stuffed birds were a key adornment of royal headdresses, essentially they became one of the most prominent and identifiable status resources featured in murals, polychrome pottery and carved stone stele.⁷ For the Maya, the valued commodity of jade was "[…] at all t.mes s partnered in royal cost.mes by the cascading iridescent-green plumes of the male quetzal birds, whose precious feathers spring and bounce along their flexible 'spine', unlike the stiff feathers of most birds."⁸ The spectacular kaleidoscope of color was so valued by the Maya that they attempted to duplicate it through a complex layering of pigments in the murals of Bonampak.⁹ The iridescence of bundles of feathers must have appeared as a magical and transformative vision.

Feathers and Maize
Similar to how bird imagery became a metaphor for clouds and rain, it is notable how feathers and maize share common elements. The pliant plumes of quetzal feathers speak to the curving leaves of a young maize plant and the flowing strands of maize silk. It has been noted that bird imagery was used to reference maize. Just as an abundance of maize signaled agricultural wealth, so quetzal feathers were symbolic of higher powers. For the Olmec, "[…] the divine and the earthly were understood as intertwined, symbiotic and interactional."¹⁰

Conclusion
The Olmec manifested their sacred visions and beliefs of the cosmic order in monumental and portable stone sculptures of their gods. The Olmec worldview was grounded in shamanic rituals, which maintained a cosmic order and ensured the natural cycles of ecology that enabled agricultural abundance. Their ability to procure and exchange precious materials was crucial to the success and influence of the era.

The Guennol serpentine figure is a profound and powerful portable sculpture encapsulating the foundational elements of the Olmec world. The fierce yet composed dignity of this Rain god honors the precious natural resource of rare feathers, his reverential act affirming authority and the ongoing cosmic order.

The Guennol collects ion

Within collects ing communities, the name “Guennol” has become synonymous with exceptional artworks from the ancient world and beyond. The collects ion owes its discerning vision to Alastair Bradley and Edith Park Martin, who chose the name Guennol after the Welsh word for "marten" (a small mammal) as a tribute to t.mes spent in Wales during their honeymoon. The Martins commitment to collects ing uniquely wonderful objects is a unifying theme in their otherwise diverse collects ion. The 1975 first volume publication of their collects ion produced by the Metropolitan Museum of Art following an earlier exhibition of the collects ion dedicates the book to "the fakers and counterfeiters without whom collects ing would be considerably less challenging" – a fitting sent.mes nt for two collects ors entirely devoted to connoisseurship across fields as diverse as ancient near eastern to American folk art. The Martins were also consistently philanthropic in their approach to collects ing, often leaving works on long-term loans to institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, making the Guennol credit line a familiar site for dedicated museum-goers.

In 2007, Replica Shoes ’s had the distinct honor of offering the "Guennol Lioness", a masterpiece of Elamite art which achieved a price of 57.2 million dollars and remains the highest price achieved for an antiquity at auction. The gravitas of the Guennol legacy persists through the present day, and Replica Shoes ’s is pleased to be offering two exceptional works from the ancient world in this sale, the deity, along with the Guennol bronze age disc, lot 5.

¹Karl A. Taube, "The Rainmakers: The Olmec and Their Contribution to Mesoamerican Belief and Ritual", in Michael D. Coe, ed., The Olmec World: Ritual and Rulership, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995, p. 96.
²Karl A. Taube, Olmec Art at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 2004, p. 29.
³See Coe, ed., op. cit., p. 170, cat. no. 42 for the Princeton figure, and Taube, op. cit., p. 59, pl. 5 for the Dumbarton Oaks figure.
⁴Taube, op. cit., p. 106, pl. 18, and p. 107.
⁵Coe, ed. 1995, op. cit., p. 287.
⁶For the incised celts of figures holding sacred bundles from Rio Pesquero, see Elizabeth P. Benson, Beatriz de la Fuente, and Marcia Castro-Leal Espino, eds., Olmec Art of Ancient.mes xico, Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1996, pp. 268-269, cat. no. 117, and Coe, ed., op. cit., p. 107, fig. 7a; for the incised celt showing a maize fetish as a quetzal bird with maize, see ibid., p. 229, fig. 3.
⁷Stephen D. Houston, Claudia Brittenham, Cassandra Mesick, et al., Veiled Brightness: A History of Ancient Maya Color, Austin: University of Texas, 2009, pp. 45-49.
⁸Mary Miller and Simon Martin, eds., Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya, San Francisco and New York: Replica Handbags s Museums of San Francisco and Thames & Hudson, 2004, p. 53.
⁹See Diana Magaloni Kerpel, The Colors of the New World: Artists, Materials, and the Creation of the Florentine Codex, Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 1998.
¹⁰ Eric Mazariegos, "Precious Verdant Matter: The Iconography of Quetzals, Feathers, and Maize in Olmec Art", Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Journal, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2018, p. 63.