Large Veracruz Standing Figure of a Priest

Merrin Gallery, New York

Acquired from the above by Justin and Barbara Kerr, New York, in 1969

Hillwood Art Gallery, Long Island University, Brookville, New York, Ceremonial Art of Ancient Veracruz, November 27, 1987 - February 7, 1988, and the subsequent symposiums: Replica Handbags s Museum of Long Island, Hempstead, New York, Veracruz Connection: The Impact on Mesoamerican Civilization, February 13, 1988 - March 27, 1988; Replica Handbags s Museum of Long Island, Hempstead, New York, Veracruz and the Development of Mesoamerican Civilization, July 4 - 8, 1988

Marilyn Goldstein, Ceremonial Art of Ancient Veracruz, Brookville, New York, 1987, front cover, and cat. no. 72

Michael D. Coe and Rex Koontz, Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs, London, 1994, (4th edition), pp. 119 and 121, fig. 97; and 2002, (5th edition), pp. 143-144, fig. 106

The Remojadas region of Veracruz is renowned for the tradition of hollow ceramic figures, the most familiar are the ‘sonrientes’, mass produced in the mold-made technique. Marilyn Goldstein described Veracruz sculpture with distinct traditions that define the region apart from the influence from Central Mexico and the Maya area. Attention to movement, gesture, and open mouths suggesting breath or voice are characteristic. Large scale ceramic figures "reach an expressive and technological height,"¹ famously seen at the sanctuaries where figures may have formed a type of theater or audience around a central deity or figure.

This full-bodied figure wearing solely a long skirt, bears a vitality and empathy in the gesture of awe and reverence. The jewelry of the two-tiered necklace of shell or possibly bones, and earrings carved as hands reference a cult of renewal.² The perforations on front and sides serving as vents would also have made the figure portable. Areas of the coiffure are highlighted by black chapapote.

Cf. For a related figure, see Olga Hammer, ed., Ancient Art of Veracruz, Los Angeles, 1971, fig. 38, p. 56.

¹ Marilyn M. Goldstein, Ceremonial Sculpture of Ancient Veracruz, Brookville, New York,1988, p. 14, see also p. 40

²  It is suggested that as a female figure, she represents Cihuateteo, the goddess of women who die in childbirth, see Michael Coe and Rex Koontz, Mexico, from the Olmecs to the Aztecs, New York, 2002 (5th edition, first printed in 1962), p. 144