Art of Africa, Oceania and the Americas

Art of Africa, Oceania and the Americas

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 145. TLATILCO TWO-HEADED FEMALE FIGURE, TYPE D1 EARLY PRECLASSIC, CIRCA 1200-900 BC.

TLATILCO TWO-HEADED FEMALE FIGURE, TYPE D1 EARLY PRECLASSIC, CIRCA 1200-900 BC

Auction Closed

May 13, 08:41 PM GMT

Estimate

7,000 - 10,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Property from an American Private Collection

TLATILCO TWO-HEADED FEMALE FIGURE, TYPE D1 EARLY PRECLASSIC, CIRCA 1200-900 BC


Height: 4 in (10.2 cm)

Judith Nash, New York

Julian Goldsmith, Chicago, acquired from the above

D. Daniel Michel, Chicago, acquired in 1966 (inventory no. 66:131)

Ancient Art of the New World, New York, acquired from the above

American Private Collection, acquired from the above in 1991


PUBLISHED

Leo Rosshandler, Man-Eaters and Pretty Ladies: Early Art in Central Mexico from the Gulf to the Pacific, 1500 BC-500 AD, New York and Montreal, 1971, cat. no. 69

Richard F. Townsend, The Art of Tribes and Early Kingdoms, Selections from Chicago Collections, Chicago, 1984, cat. no. 52

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Man-Eaters and Pretty Ladies: Early Art in Central Mexico from the Gulf to the Pacific, 1500 BC-500 AD, January 15-March 8, 1971

The Art Institute of Chicago, The Art of Tribes and Early Kingdoms, Selections from Chicago Collections, January 12-March 4, 1984

Coe referred to the Type D1 corpus as 'the ultimate refinement of the art of figurine-making in central Mexico... which are among the most beautiful objects of their size in all of the New World." (Coe, The Jaguar's Children, Pre-Classic Central Mexico, New York, 1965, p. 26). As shown on this figure, the double-head is comfortably positioned on a typical Tlatilco body with tiny waist ("wasp waist"), short arms and the well rounded bulbous thighs of youthful females. Often accented by red pigment of cinnabar or hematite, the elaborate coiffure and finely modeled eyes, nose and mouth are the focus of these delicate yet powerful female figures.