Property from the Estate of Patsy R. Taylor
Jalisco Joined Couple, Ameca-Etzatlán Style, Protoclassic, circa 100 BC - AD 250
Lot Closed
December 4, 05:20 PM GMT
Estimate
40,000 - 60,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Property from the Estate of Patsy R. Taylor
Jalisco Joined Couple, Ameca-Etzatlán Style
Protoclassic, circa 100 BC - AD 250
Height: 14 1/2 in (36.8 cm); Width: 13 3/4 in (35 cm)
Gordon Schmidt
Gray and Patsy R. Taylor, Greenwich, acquired from the above on March 3, 1971
Gray and Patsy R. Taylor, Greenwich, acquired from the above on March 3, 1971
The Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Life, Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Mexico, April 19 - November 3, 1991
The Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past, September 5, 1998 - November 22, 1998; additional venue: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, December 20, 1998 - March 29, 1999
The Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past, September 5, 1998 - November 22, 1998; additional venue: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, December 20, 1998 - March 29, 1999
Richard F. Townsend, ed., Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past, Chicago, 1998, p. 129, fig. 32, cat. no. 129
One of the outstanding sculptures in the Taylor collection is the Jalisco joined "loving couple". He leans off-balance towards his female companion, his left arm wrapped across her back, and offers her a small cup in his raised right hand. Her hand on his knee acknowledges the gesture, but she looks outward, holding a shallow bowl close to her chest. Both figures are modestly clothed with minimal jewelry and simple turban headdresses.
As characteristically modeled in this Ameca style, the elongated faces are nearly identical; these shared features reinforce a bond of social identities and clan lineages. They each have long heavy cheekbones, sharp jawlines, and parted lips showing clearly delineated teeth. Their slender noses are adorned with rings and the wide oval rimmed eyes are accented by dark eye masks. The female’s breasts have painted tattoos of swirling patterns, and their fingernails are carefully modeled.
The paired male and female figures are an important genre of the ancient West Mexican sculptures, fortifying and honoring the ancestral lineages, either as the mythic founding couple, or as an ancestral sibling pair. Kristi Butterwick notes that ancestors were essential players in day to day life, and the sculptures "[...] are embodiments of the tales of the ancestors handed down by generations of their kin." (Kristi Butterwick, The Heritage of Power: Ancient Sculpture from West Mexico, the Andrall E. Pearson Family Collection, New York, 2004, pp. 32-33).
As characteristically modeled in this Ameca style, the elongated faces are nearly identical; these shared features reinforce a bond of social identities and clan lineages. They each have long heavy cheekbones, sharp jawlines, and parted lips showing clearly delineated teeth. Their slender noses are adorned with rings and the wide oval rimmed eyes are accented by dark eye masks. The female’s breasts have painted tattoos of swirling patterns, and their fingernails are carefully modeled.
The paired male and female figures are an important genre of the ancient West Mexican sculptures, fortifying and honoring the ancestral lineages, either as the mythic founding couple, or as an ancestral sibling pair. Kristi Butterwick notes that ancestors were essential players in day to day life, and the sculptures "[...] are embodiments of the tales of the ancestors handed down by generations of their kin." (Kristi Butterwick, The Heritage of Power: Ancient Sculpture from West Mexico, the Andrall E. Pearson Family Collection, New York, 2004, pp. 32-33).