Mexico, Huastec culture, Gulf Coast
250–650 AD
Sandstone
Height: 7¼ in (18.4 cm)
Provenance: Constance McCormick Fearing, Santa Barbara, California, acquired 1950s
The Huastec tradition is one of Mesoamerica's most celebrated stonework traditions, distinguished by its comparative naturalism and lifelike depictions of the human body. Associated with Teenek Maya-speakers of the northern Gulf Coast, Huastec sculptors worked primarily in the rich sandstone deposits along the shore, producing architectural and freestanding sculpture that ranged in color from ruddy brown to yellow-orange and grey. Although originally embellished with bright pigments, most surviving examples retain only traces of their original polychrome.
This architectural fragment is carved in the pitted, textured sandstone characteristic of Huastec production, with relief carving visible across the surface consistent with a larger architectural program. The piece was acquired in the 1950s by Constance McCormick Fearing, Santa Barbara, one of the most significant American collectors of Pre-Columbian art of her generation, whose holdings were exhibited at LACMA and whose collection has been widely cited in the scholarly literature on Mesoamerican art.
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Mexico, Huastec culture, Gulf Coast
250–650 AD
Sandstone
Height: 7¼ in (18.4 cm)
Provenance: Constance McCormick Fearing, Santa Barbara, California, acquired 1950s
The Huastec tradition is one of Mesoamerica's most celebrated stonework traditions, distinguished by its comparative naturalism and lifelike depictions of the human body. Associated with Teenek Maya-speakers of the northern Gulf Coast, Huastec sculptors worked primarily in the rich sandstone deposits along the shore, producing architectural and freestanding sculpture that ranged in color from ruddy brown to yellow-orange and grey. Although originally embellished with bright pigments, most surviving examples retain only traces of their original polychrome.
This architectural fragment is carved in the pitted, textured sandstone characteristic of Huastec production, with relief carving visible across the surface consistent with a larger architectural program. The piece was acquired in the 1950s by Constance McCormick Fearing, Santa Barbara, one of the most significant American collectors of Pre-Columbian art of her generation, whose holdings were exhibited at LACMA and whose collection has been widely cited in the scholarly literature on Mesoamerican art.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
