Pre-Columbian, Oaxaca, Mexico, Zapotec culture, Monte Alban IV, ca. 600 to 800 CE. A mold-made ceramic double incensario, in the form of a seated lord, with two cylindrical vessels emerging from his hollow and undecorated back. The lord is shown with legs crossed, wearing a headdress that is almost sphinx-like, with a hand draped gruesomely down over the front of it. He also wears large spooled earrings, a huge, multi-layered pectoral, and a draped skirt that hangs from his waist over his legs. Size: 4.45" L x 5.1" W x 5.55" H (11.3 cm x 13 cm x 14.1 cm)

Monte Alban, a city inhabited for over a thousand years before abandonment centuries before the arrival of the Spanish, was a regional power that dominated much of the modern day state of Oaxaca and interacted with other city states in Mesoamerica, like Teotihuacan to its north. Many cultures at this time were producing ceremonial incensarios (censers), but Monte Alban's in particular were often so anthropomorphized that from the front they are difficult to tell from sculpture. This is in strong contrast to incensarios at Teotihuacan, which were highly abstract. Figural censers have been excavated from Monte Alban's high status tombs, where it seems they were placed to leave offerings for the dead.

Monte Alban incensarios are highly valued. See a larger one from Sotheby's Sale 8552, lot 129 with estimate of $50,000 to $70,000.

Provenance: Whisnant Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA acquired over twenty years ago

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#123043

Intact, with some remaining pigment on the headdress and light encrustation in the lower profile areas.