Tall idol of the Mezcala culture
€15,000
available
Object number
AR3404
| Object: |
Tall idol of the Mezcala culture
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| Material: |
Grey-green grained stone. Andesite.
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| Period: |
Circa 300 BC to 100 BC, Mezcala culture, Late Preclassic period of Mesoamerica. |
| Description: |
Mezcala idol of type M10, made of beautiful greenish stone. The highly stylized figure shows a man standing upright. His arms in bas relief bent in front of the middle of his body. The remaining limbs and facial features are carved out. The entire surface is finely polished.
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| Background: |
The Mezcala culture from southern Mexico flourished long before the Aztecs cultural dominated in the region. Their art played with geometric shapes and the abstract. Not surprisingly, Mezcala artefacts became highly popular with collectors and museums with the rise of modern art. But modern Europeans and North Americans were not the first to excavate and draw inspiration from the art of the Preclassic Mesoamerican period. The Aztecs were already excavating around the 15th century. They valued the abstract Mezcala figures they found, like the one offered here. They were even considered worthy of being offered to their own gods at the great temple in the capital Tenochtitlan. |
| Dimensions: |
The figure alone is 20.6cm high and 7.5cm wide. With stand 21.3cm high.
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| Condition: |
Museum worthy. Wonderfully preserved surface, only minor chips and an unpolished area at the top of the head. The right leg was broken off at the hip and professionally reattached. The break did not need to be retouched because it is hardly noticeable. The figure is mounted on a modern black plate with a pin embedded in the right foot. There is a small chip there, which was probably not caused by the mounting, but was partially concealed by it. A previous owner's inscription in black on the right leg "KS 30.07". There are three stickers under the base. A sticker with black handwriting "MEZCALA KS 30.07". A second sticker with the imprint "0361 MEZCALA STONE FIGURE M - 10 LATE PRECLASSIC. Above it the rest of a round sticker, probably an old auction house sticker from Christie's. Also above it a yellow round sticker with the imprint "Slg. Karl-Ferdinand Schädler" and inscription "22".
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| Provenance: |
Acquired by us on the German art market in 2022. Previously in the German collection of Dr. Dr. Karl-Ferdinand Schaedler, collection number 22. Acquired by him at Christie's Paris auction on 14 June 2004 "Art Africain, Océanien et Précolumbien", lot 378. From the estate of the US-American collector Noah Lewis "Ned" Pines (1905-1990). The piece was probably purchased at Christie's between the 1960s and 1980s, as can be deduced from a sticker residue on the underside of the base. Ned Pines was a publisher and is known, for example, for the comic character Captain Future. A separate auction at Sotheby's was dedicated to his extensive collection of paintings. |
| References: |
For another piece of the related type M12 on the art market, see Christie's New York auktion 12 November 2004, lot 40 (sold for 11,353 USD, equivalent to 9,000 EUR at the time).
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| Publication: |
The piece is depicted in the art catalogue by Andreas Achmann, Anita Schroeder (Panterra, 2019), p. 46, no. 22.
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| Literature: |
Reyna Robles, Rosa María, La Organera-Xochipala: Un sitio del Epiclásico en la Región Mezcala de Guerrero (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia Mexico, 2003).
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| Authenticity: |
We unconditionally guarantee the authenticity of every artefact, all items are subject to our lifetime return policy on authenticity.
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