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Scientific Analysis Report: A thermoluminescence analysis report issued by QED Laboratoire on 25 September 2017, based on sample number QED1737/BP-0104, sets the firing date of the two samples taken between 1800 and 2300 years ago, consistent with the dating above. A copy of the report accompanies this lot.
Mexico, 3rd century BC-1st century AD. Boldly modeled, the figure stands with arms akimbo and sturdy legs slightly apart. The broad, flattened torso rises to an elongated head with deeply recessed eyes, a prominent aquiline nose with pierced nostrils, and an open mouth. Bold geometric decoration in red and cream accentuates the angular form, the surface finely burnished.
Provenance: Simpson Galleries, Houston, United States. Martin Doustar, Brussels, Belgium, acquired from the above. Simpson Galleries is a family-operated auction house specializing in fine art, antiques, and decorative arts founded in Houston in 1962 by William ‘Bill’ Simpson (b. 1926). Originally established as Simpson’s Antiques and later known as William Simpson Galleries, the firm developed from a small Westheimer location into a longstanding presence in Houston’s art and collecting community. Across three generations of the Simpson family, the gallery has maintained a sustained engagement with connoisseurship, appraisal, and the stewardship and sale of private and institutional collections. Martin Doustar is a Brussels-based art dealer and collector whose career spans more than two decades. He began his professional journey in the early 2000s with a focus on Modern Art, developing a keen interest in the ways early twentieth-century artists were influenced by ‘primitive’ art from Africa and Oceania. Over time, his connoisseurship expanded into archaeological and ethnographic fields, with particular expertise in the ancient arts of the Pacific, Africa, and pre-Columbian America, while also encompassing Asian material culture and modern masterpieces. He is the author of numerous scholarly catalogs and has organized thematic exhibitions on a wide range of subjects.
Condition: Good condition, with old wear, firing irregularities, traces of weathering, signs of prolonged burial, expected rubbing and losses to pigments with associated touchups, and minor chips. Two small holes from sample taking.
Weight: 1.1 kg (excl. stand), 1.9 kg (incl. stand)
Dimensions: Height 32.8 cm (excl. stand), 33.7 cm (incl. stand)
With an associated metal stand. (2)
The spectacular finish of this solid figure is a classic feature of the Chupícuaro style. The red slip is brilliant and multi-tonal, with white or cream slip providing contrast and detail. Overall, the surfaces of the sculpture are smooth and highly burnished. In profile, the figure appears quite flat. The top of the elongated head curves backward, its shape suggestive of cranial deformation. Instead of hair covering the head, the figure seems to be wearing a white cap with a thick strap under the chin; on the front of the cap, at the top, is a thin white stripe dividing a block of red. The facial features are modeled: large eyes, outlined in white with carved rounded pupils; a protruding nose with drilled nostrils; and a deeply gouged mouth, slightly smiling. Ears are indicated by simple, rounded indentations on the sides of the head.
The figure wears an elaborately decorated costume. A pattern of diamond shapes and cross-hatching in white on red covers most of the front of the torso. The architectural stepped-pyramid motif outlined in white on the figure’s back may be a graphic reference to a specific place. The bold designs on both front and back, as well as the white slip on the figure’s upper legs, may represent a woven garment or body paint. Most of the lustrous bichrome ceramics and figures from Chupícuaro were recovered from funerary contexts.
The Chupícuaro polychrome figures from the Michoacán, Guanajuato region are the earliest Mesoamerican large figural ceramics with complex polychrome designs of a highly consistent iconographic style. The detailed resist technique is one aspect of a sophisticated and innovative ceramic tradition beginning in the Middle to Late Preclassic (c. 500 BC). The highly burnished redware surface mastered by the ancient ceramists, remained an influential style into the Postclassic era.
The site of Chupícuaro was part of a cluster of well-developed regional centers with strong ties to other urban communities eastward in the Valley of Mexico and to the western regions of Jalisco. The distinctive figures became known in the 1920s, however the subsequent construction of the Solís Dam in 1949 along the Rio Lerma flooded much of the region.
Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related Chupícuaro ceramic standing figure, dated to the 3rd century BC-1st century AD, 39.1 cm high, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number 2005.91.11. Compare a closely related smaller Chupícuaro earthenware female figure, dated 4th century BC-2nd century AD, 17.8 cm high, in the Crocker Art Museum, accession no. 2021.75.12.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby’s New York, 16 May 2013, lot 10
Price: USD 43,750 or approx. EUR 55,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A Chupícuaro standing female figure, Late Preclassic, circa 300-100 BC
Expert remark: Compare the closely related subject, modeling, and polychrome decorative style. Note the similar size (35 cm).
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