In the western region of Mexico, various traditions were developed that had common characteristics in the way of representing the human body, but placed special emphasis on a particular aspect. These figurines largely followed a common form of representation where more emphasis was placed on the hips, vagina, and breasts and a more detailed representation of the arms or feet was omitted.
In the case of figurine 811 from the Amparo Museum collection, it is a standing woman. The legs are slightly apart, the hips and torso are straight, creating a rectangular shape in the figure and the head faces forward. The section with the most treatment is the head, which is finished in a rectangle. The headdress is simple and consists of a cylinder with incised lines inside, tied at each end by an slanted band. Below this, a half circle with incisions in the contour is placed with pastillage to simulate the hair. On the sides of the head are two large tubular shapes that represent the earrings and that help to focus attention on the head. The face is one of the focal points of the piece's attraction, especially the eyes. The face is created with two circles at the level of the eye socket that merge with the cheeks and chin, highlighting only the upper curvature. In the middle of these circles an eye was placed in the shape of a diamond, that is, an oblong shape with a triangle formed by two incised lines. The nose is prominent and aquiline and has two small openings at the bottom simulating the nostrils. The mouth follows a procedure similar to that of the eyes, when an oblong shape with two horizontal lines incised in the center is placed on with pastillage.
The union of the head and the body is made with a thin neck that is lost between the large earrings and the necklace composed of a band with incised lines inside. The shape of the torso is square and small bands of uniform thickness emerge from the upper part to simulate the arms. At the end the shape is rounded and four incised lines were placed to represent the hands.
The most striking part of the body is the large breasts, placed at the end of the torso. Their shape is conical and they have two small circles attached to the pastillage to represent the nipples. Below them there is a horizontal band and a half circle in the center, which represents modern aprons. There is also a thick incision that represents the vagina.
Unlike the pieces from the Preclassic, where the hips and thighs are very marked, in this piece the torso is kept the same width and instead of getting larger, the hips gradually begin to shrink. In the lower part, there are two conical shapes that are flattened at the end and three incisions to mark the toes.
This piece, which reveals the color of the clay and the fire clouds, was painted in red, white and black. Red can still be seen on the face, inside the earrings and on the necklace. The bands of the headdress and the outer sections of the eye were painted white, while there are traces of black on the legs.
This figurine is a great example of how the different traditions appropriated a stylistic canon and with it represented what was most relevant to their group. Thus, although they maintain an interest in representing fertility, the breasts and vagina are considered as the main elements of this concept; the slim waist and large hips, which are very noticeable in other traditions, lose interest in this piece. Likewise, the hands and feet are barely emulated, but the ornaments on the head, the headdress, the large earrings and the necklace emphasize and frame the striking eyes, which in pre-Columbian times were used to show such important qualities as the life or death of the person, the presence of divine energy or the abandonment of it.
