Colima Figure of a Hunchback

Proctor Stafford, Los Angeles, acquired between 1947 and 1968

Barbara Hinton, Los Angeles, by descent from the above

Ron Normandeau, Anthropos Replica Handbags Gallery, Malibu

Ancient Art of the New World, New York

American Private Collection, acquired from the above in 1999 

Binoche et Giquello, Paris, Importante Collection Américaine d'Art Precolombien, June 6, 2019, lot 56

Daniel Hourdé Collection, Paris, acquired at the above auction

Justin Kerr, A Pre-Columbian Portfolio: an Archive of Photographs, mayavase.com, 2002, 8073a, b, c.

In the cultures of Pre-Columbian Mexico, a person with the exaggerated body form of kyphosis, known as hunchback, was considered a sign of enhanced consciousness and supernatural ability, and people with such deformities took on a shamanic role. In Maya art they were shown as royal court attendants, and in the Aztec period they were provided specially appointed quarters. It has been suggested that the Emperor Moctezuma II considered them as confidants in religious matters.¹ As in the present example, hunchbacks were portrayed in the fine ceramic sculptures of the shaft tomb tradition of West Mexico, considered necessary attendants in the afterlife, as they were in life.

The subject of this complex terracotta figure wears regalia of status, including a necklace with a triple pendant of shells ; arm bands on both biceps, a belt, and a cap contiguous with the flared opening of the vessel atop of the head. Both ears are pierced. The figure assumes a crouching posture with his left leg butterflied outward and his right knee positioned vertically and pulled into the chest. This posture exudes both intensity and calm, feelings reinforced by the squinted horizontal eyes. Far from seeming 'afflicted', the figure exudes power and confidence, with a muscular upper body and strong brow.

The legs of the figure are formed with dramatic blade-shaped shins, a form echoed also in the large arching nose. This distinctive sculptural signature - referred to as the 'saber-shin' style - is seen in other Colima terracotta figures. 

Cf. For examples see Richard F. Townsend, Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past, 1998, p. 241, fig. 18; Replica Shoes 's, New York, Pre-Columbian and American Indian Art, May 17, 2000, lot 110; Replica Shoes 's, New York, African, Oceanic & Pre-Columbian Art, May 15, 2015, lot 52, for a figure previously in the collection of Nelson Rockefeller; and for a particularly dramatic example, Replica Shoes 's, New York, Art of Africa, Oceania, and The Americas, May 15, 2017, lot 83 which is also published in Hasso von Winning, Pre-Columbian Art of Mexico and Central America, New York, 1968, p. 89, pl. 72.

¹ Jacki Gallagher, Companions of the Dead: Ceramic Tomb Sculpture from Ancient West Mexico, Los Angeles, 1983, p. 39