Olmec Stone Bird Monster Transformation Figure Middle Preclassic Period, circa 900 - 300 BC

Lot Closed

May 18, 07:46 PM GMT

Estimate

35,000 - 45,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Property from an American Private Collection

Olmec Stone Bird Monster Transformation Figure

Middle Preclassic Period, circa 900 - 300 BC

Height: 3 1/4 in (8.3 cm)

Robert and Marianne Huber, Dixon, Illinois, acquired in 1963
Robert Stolper, London, acquired in 1964
Morton Lipkin, Scottsdale
Tom Slater, Indianapolis
David and Bonnie Ross, Carmel, Indiana, acquired prior to 1986
Robert and Marianne Huber, Dixon, Illinois
American private collection, acquired from the above in 2002

Joyce Rosa, Pre-Columbian Sculpture, Long Island University, C.W. Post Campus, Brookville, New York, 1970, no. 1
Marilyn M. Goldstein, Ceremonial Sculpture of Ancient Veracruz, Brookhaven, New York, 1987, p. 4, color plate, and p. 49, cat. no. 25
Lee Allen Parsons, The David and Bonnie Ross Collection of Pre-Columbian Art, West Lafayette, Indiana, 1988, p. 15, cat. no. 2
FAMSI website, Resources, Kerr Portfolio, Image Number 3497. File date: 2001-05-11

This small, dynamic figure embodies the transformation of a human into a bird-man shaman. The bird-man figure characteristically shows raptorial avian and feline attributes. The characteristic single feather plume of the Bird Monster deity rises up the center of the head in an expanding curl, and the feline's fangs dominate the wide-open mouth. He is firmly poised in the ritual posture, with a compact, robust body, rounded belly, and short raised arms with the remaining hand clasped in a fist.

His large head tapers to a pointed chin, the heavy-lidded brows sweep upward from the deeply recessed eyes which are framed by swelling lower lids. The back of the head is smooth-shaven on top, indicative of the transformation, with the lower half retaining the striated coiffure. The well-defined nose shows drilled nostrils with sacred red cinnabar remaining within, and the ears are finely drilled.