Pre-Columbian, Southern Mexico to Guatemala, Mayan Territories, Maya, Late Classic Period, ca. 600 to 900 CE. A voluminous male portrait head, hand-built from chalky white lime-stucco and displaying remains of deep orange hematite pigment. The face is defined by fleshy cheeks with tooled creases above the mouth, a bulbous aquiline nose, almond-shaped eyes with heavy brows, and parted lips. The man dons a wide-striped headdress over his smooth brow with a pair of thin vertical striations delineating the central panel. Stucco heads like this may have been part of a portrait gallery when the depicted individual was still alive and buried with them upon their death. The overall state of preservation of this example may attest to such funerary practices. Custom wooden display stand included. Size: 6" W x 7.5" H (15.2 cm x 19 cm); 9.7" H (24.6 cm) on included custom stand.

For a stylistically-similar example, please see The Walters Art Museum, accession number 2009.20.46: https://art.thewalters.org/detail/80201/stucco-portrait-head-2/

A stylistically-similar example hammered for $10,755 at Christie's, New York "Important Pre-Columbian Art A European Private Collection" Auction (sale 1537, November 12, 2004, lot 63): https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot/a-mayan-stucco-head-of-a-dignitary-4384440-details.aspx?from=searchresults&intObjectID=4384440&sid=613071cb-d491-41f5-afc1-cef1708c190e

Provenance: private New York, New York, USA collection; ex-private lifetime collection of Dr. Saul Tuttman and Dr. Gregory Siskind, New York, New York, USA

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#139429

Surface wear and abrasions commensurate with age, fading to areas of pigmentation, small losses to top of head, peripheries, and verso, with fading to some finer details, and minor nicks to face and peripheries. Great traces of pigmentation on obverse face as well as nice earthen deposits and root marks throughout. Old inventory stickers on verso. Drilled through verso for mounting.