Sultepec Stone Face Panel, Late Preclassic, circa 300 - 100 BC

Maurice Bonnefoy, New York and Paris

Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, May 19, 1980, lot 179, consigned by the above

Acquired at the above auction

Sociedad de Arte Moderno, eds., Máscaras mexicanas, Mexico City, 1945, p. 27, cat. no. 8

  The Sultepec style is distinctive for the highly exaggerated aquiline nose that emphasizes the concept of smell and life-giving breath. It is considered a variation of the nearby Chontal style outside of the Guerrero region. Gay notes “[...] facial features are conspicuously lacking, giving a strong impression of abstraction.” (Carlo and Robin Gay, Chontal: Ancient Stone Sculpture from Guerrero, Mexico, Geneva, 2001, p. 117). Here the artist chose to create expressive facial details, the recesses of small oval eyes are surmounted by angled and raised browlines, a deep groove runs across the cheeks under the nose and the mouth is relaxed. The overall shape of the head is a graceful teardrop and it is pierced at the temples for suspension.

 For a very similar example in the Arensberg Collection, Philadelphia, see George Kubler, The Walter and Louise Arensberg Collection: Pre-Columbian Sculpture, Philadelphia, 1954, n.p., cat. no. 93. Also see Carlo and Robin Gay, op. cit., pp. 117-118, pls. 180-181 for the style.