Anthropomorphic male figure. Nayarit Culture, Western Mexico, ca. 100 BC-250 AD.
Terracotta.
Provenance: Private collection, Paris.
It has restorations on the neck and on the vessel that holds the figure.
Measurements: 22 cm (height).
Seated figure holding a bowl in his left hand. The figure wears a nose ring and earrings and the whole piece is decorated with gilded greccio and circular motifs.
Nayarit ceramics were made using different production and finishing techniques, with negative and positive painting decoration standing out, although the forms represented are fairly homogeneous. The human figures are quite naturalistic, although they show certain deformations, such as elongation and stylisation of the body shapes, in order to achieve a more expressive figure. Some details in the aesthetic conception of this people can be seen in them, such as cranial deformation, the use of nose rings, earrings and necklaces and the decoration of the clothing. Particularly noteworthy are certain upright female representations holding vessels, or seated, kneeling or reclining. Representations of animals are very rare, with the dog standing out among them.
The Nayarit culture developed on the west coast of Mexico between about 500 BC and 500 AD in an area of large wetlands and dense jungle. It maintained close relations with the neighbouring peoples of Jalisco and Colima, with whom it shared many cultural characteristics. However, to this day we do not have much information about this culture, as few archaeological remains have been found, and those that are preserved come almost exclusively from private collections. Nayarit is therefore one of the great unknowns of Mesoamerican cultures. They were a farming people whose society was based around the shaman, the main head of a religion in which the cult of the dead played a major role.