Dignitary with expressive gesture

This sculpture forms a pair with another work, also of the Ixtlan del Rio style, which belongs to the Amparo Museum collection. Representation in pairs is a constant in the art of the shaft tombs culture, and given that this type of burial enclosure, from which the female figure surely comes, was used with high frequency for collective burials of those who might have been of a family or lineage, it is possible to point out that this pair of works portrays a couple, who were accompanied by them to their final dwelling. Beyond their ostentatious attire, the total configuration of the sculptures: dimensions, meticulous treatment, technical quality; represents a marriage of high social hierarchy that could at the same time refer to the condition of the deceased couple.

When viewed together, their equal height and the identical elements they share stand out, such as the headdress, earrings, nose ring, necklace, bracelet of a band with overlapping circular shapes and the lateral cloak that covers the arm and part of the torso. In particular, it is possible to detect that these are modeled works, probably by the same artist, and that different conventions are followed for the representation of the women and the men. These are presented in the various and numerous zonal styles of the ceramic art of this culture and, along with other features, allow me to point out that they constitute a great style, which entails a shared ideology and a solid cultural integration by a great number of communities along a vast and far reaching territory.

As for conventions, apart from the bulging breasts and the use of a skirt for the case of the first ones, the position with a raised arm showing the palm of the hand and the placement of a vessel on the lap is very interesting (in other female figures both arms can be seen raised with the palms to the front and a vessel on the abdomen or a shoulder). Undoubtedly, the feminine gesture described had specific and important meanings for this society, although they have not yet been deciphered. What I can assert is the realism and the secularism that are identified in principle because we do not perceive fantastic features nor attributes of recognized deities, they are only apparent; their creation was governed by precise codes that fulfilled certain functions in the religious-burial context for which they were made.

Our sculpture is also an expression of pictorial art: the body itself is a canvas with black designs on the face and torso, while the clothing exhibits polychrome decorations. This trait is another point in common with the male figure; the motifs are similar but the composition is different and I consider that other conventions of the feminine and masculine were embodied in it. Similarly, in both sculptures, body paint is confused with black spots that are mineral deposits.  

On the woman there are also seen white sections on the legs, a bracelet made up of lines of white dots, white nails and the vessel with lines in white and orange on the red base.

The motifs in the clothing could represent textile painting, embroidery or weaving. In both the cloak and the skirt the pattern is reticulated; alternately simple rectangular and square spirals are diagonally divided by a zigzag line, giving rise to staggered triangles; it seems that a staggered fretwork was represented separately, a very outstanding design in the Mesoamerican arts. On the other hand, the checkered and polychrome composition refers to textile designs of the Andean region, found among the numerous testimonies of the relations among the societies of the Mesoamerican West and the South American Northwest.