Zacatecas Seated Couple, Protoclassic, circa 100 BC - AD 250

Acquired by 1971 (listed as no. 54 in the September 10, 1973 appraisal of the collection)

Zacatecas couples have been called “[...] one of the most celebrated styles of West Mexican sculpture.” (Kristi Butterwick, Heritage of Power: Ancient Sculpture from West Mexico, The Andrall E. Pearson Family Collection, New York, 2004, p. 56), deemed as such for their extreme stylization, lively demeanor, and sensuous burnished surfaces of deep coloration.

The Lazar couple bears the characteristic features of ancestral pairs, with identical facial styles, evident in the highly sculpted rimmed mouths, eyes and slender noses, and the matching jewelry. The ear plugs and last string of the multiple necklaces each have delicate stiff tassels, perhaps shells. The slender arms loop widely to the side and are adorned with armbands. The male figure’s coiffure is wrapped around upright supports of “mushroom” style, and each figure’s body is painted with resist designs.

See Butterwick, op. cit., p. 57, cat. no. 14, for the type.