Chupícuaro Female Figure, Late Preclassic, 300 - 100 BC

David Stuart, Los Angeles
Edwin and Cherie Silver, Los Angeles, acquired from the above on February 10, 1973

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past, September 5, 1998 - November 22, 1988, continuing to
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, December 20, 1998-March 29, 1999

Richard F. Townsend, ed., Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past, Chicago, 1998, p. 256, fig. 5, cat. no. 169

Chupícuaro figures are notable for the extensive covering of the body for symbolic ornamentation. Servain-Riviale examined how body modifications of both permanent forms such as tattooing, and transitory designs of body-painting, convey non-verbal communication (Servain-Riviale, in Beekman and Pickering, eds., Reassessment, 2016, pp. 163-173). The step-fret design so distinctive of Chupícuaro figures, can be seen as one form of the quincunx, the four part emblem of Mesoamerican iconography symbolic of cardinal directions and the levels of universe linked by a central point. As typically painted on Chupícuaro figures, the eyes and mouth form the center of the quincunx design, thus sight and language are symbolically the center or axis mundi of this directional emblem as used on figures. The carefully modelled diamond-shaped eyes also suggest the sculptor's intention of a four-part symbolic reference (ibid., p. 171).

This female figure also has elaborate repeat patterning across her pelvis and upper legs which may be markers to a particular kin group or lineage. These repeat designs may have been applied by stamps.