Pre-Columbian, Central Mexico, Guerrero region, ca. 300 to 100 BCE. A Chontal maskette expertly carved from a grey stone with green undertones and mottled beige inclusions. The mask presents an angular form and a flat back, its visage with features in relief including coffee bean shaped eyes, rounded cheek bones, prominent brows, a long aquiline nose, puckered lips, and narrow ear phalanges pierced at the lobes with additional perforations behind temples. Custom block mount. Size: 4" W x 5.5" H (10.2 cm x 14 cm); 4.5" W x 7.5" H (11.4 cm x 19 cm) with mount

The Guerrero region of modern-day southwestern Mexico was the center of the Mezcala and Chontal stone carving traditions. While Mezcala artists are known for their abstract, geometric style, the Chontal sculptors imbued their artworks with more naturalism. Although their stonework stems from the Preclassic period, ca. 300 to 100 BCE, later Mesoamerican peoples clearly cherished Chontal portable sculptures as heirlooms. Chontal creations have been unearthed in ritual caches at Templo Mayor, the principle temple of the fifteenth-century Aztecs of Tenochititlan (Mexico City). What's more, legendary 20th century modernists such as Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Miguel Covarrubias appreciated the minimalist qualities of Chontal art. Covarrubias went so far as to compare it to the Cycladic style of ancient Greece. Scholars believe that such masks were tied to funerary bundles of the noble elite; however, the smaller scale suggests it may have been attached to clothing. Note the four perforations at the peripheries for such attachment.

Provenance: Ex-Dr. G. Hermann collection, Denver, CO acquired before 1980

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#118960

On verso are linear depressions most likely inherent to the original stone. Chip to upper edge on back side. Old abrasions beneath it. Otherwise excellent.