Large Tlatilco Figure of a Woman, Morelos region, Type DK, Early Preclassic, circa 1200 - 900 BC

European Private Collection

Sotheby's, New York, November 23, 1992, lot 103, consigned by the above

Sotheby's, New York, May 9, 2006, lot 165, reconsigned by the above

Acquired at the above auction

The Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past, September 5 - 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. 287, cat. no. 159

Impressive for her size and the graceful attenuated form of the body, this figure is an important example of the large Preclassic figural tradition. Studies in the 1980s revealed the layered iconography of the figures, “Far more than charming [...] the figurines are sophisticated sculptures that embody the aesthetic, political and religious values of both the San Lorenzo Olmec and Tlatilco cultures.” (Douglas E. Bradley and Peter David Joralemon, The Lords of Life: The Iconography of Power and Fertility in Preclassic Mesoamerica, Notre Dame, Indiana, 1992, p. 29). 

Her long tapered torso is painted in reddish-brown and brown in crisscross designs on the front and back creating a pattern of abstract forms associated with the “Displayed Deity”, a supernatural effigy. Her slightly flattened arms are looped to the body with sharp clavicles and small upturned breasts. Her open mouth and slanted eyes give an engaged trance-like quality. Of note is the ridged coiffure resembling a helmet and the design of a stylized sprouting element on the back of the head.

For a similar figure also wearing a ridged helmet, see Christine Philips, ed., Le cinquième soleil. Arts du Mexique, Sarran, 2012, p. 63, cat. no. 35. For a smaller figure of similar design, see Bradley and Joralemon, op. cit., p. 42, cat. no. 19.