Pre-Columbian, Central Mexico, Teotihuacan, ca. 200 to 600 CE. A beautiful mask of an angular form characteristic of Teotihuacan, finely carved from a stone of stunning pale green hues with red cinnabar rubbed on the surface, from the sacred city of Teotihuacan ("the place were the gods were created"). The sculptor's attention to detail is impressive with strong facial features and accoutrements, including a lobed, perhaps plumed, headdress, negatively carved ovoid eyes framed by overhanging arched brows, an aquiline nose carved in relief with drilled nostrils, his open mouth revealing teeth with the chin demarcated as well, and those phalange-shaped ears, both pierced for the suspension of ornaments. Bilaterally perforated behind the headdress. Custom stand. Size: 4.125" W x 5.625" H (10.5 cm x 14.3 cm); 6.75" H (17.1 cm) on stand.

Teotihuacan was at one time the largest city in the Pre-Columbian world, famous for its pyramids (Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon) as well as the Great Compound with the Temple of Quetzalcoatl (aka Temple of the Plumed Serpent) punctuating the Avenue of the Dead. Stone masks like this example are perhaps the best known works of Teotihuacan art. According to scholars, they are believed to have been part of funerary furniture; however, no masks have been found in burial chambers. Instead, archaeologists have discovered them in the vicinity of temples and complexes along the Avenue of the Dead. Some speculate that they may have been attached to wooden armatures in temples to represent deities on their journey to achieving god-hood.

Provenance: ex-collection of the late Peter Arnovick, San Francisco, California USA

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#123019

A tiny nick on left lobe of headdress. White caliche deposits on some areas of surface. Overall excellent.