This piece shows the creative attention to detail of the small-scale ceramic sculpture modeled by the Chupicuareña society. Even when it reflects the limitations of the artisans' figurative ability, it presents an interesting repertoire of elements.
The Chupícuaro culture developed during the late phase of the first period in the history of Mesoamerica, called the Pre-Classic. In relation to its historical peculiarities, it is part of the Western region, although it maintained important interactions with the inhabitants of Central Mexico, particularly with those of Cuicuilco. Surely one of the connecting routes was the Lerma River, which has its source in the Toluca Valley in the State of Mexico and then flows westward, where it runs parallel to the eastern border between the present-day states of Guanajuato and Michoacán.
It was precisely at the confluence of the Lerma and Tigre or Coroneo rivers, in the municipality of Jerécuaro in Guanajuato, that the town of Chupícuaro was located, and from which this culture took its name. As a result of the construction project of the Solís dam in that locality, the INAH carried out archaeological rescue work between 1945 and 1947 that shed light on the original underground and surface burial contexts of an abundant and remarkable artistic ceramic production, among other objects which were already in national and foreign collections.
In Guanajuato, as well as the Acámbaro valley and the Cuitzeo lake basin, the Chupícuaro culture includes the Morelia valley in Michoacán and the plains to the south of Querétaro.
The work has attributes of the style called “slant eye” by Muriel Noé Porter who, together with Daniel Rubín de la Borbolla, Román Piña Chan and Elsa Estrada Balmori, carried out this archaeological rescue in Chupícuaro. In its diminutive solid structure, the tiny stucco detail is attractive, consisting of applications of clay paste attached to the base volume (only on the front) to form the hairstyles, headdresses, eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, and ear ornaments. There is no certainty as to whether the figure is of a male or a female.
The representation of a tripod bench is noteworthy, on which the figure sits with its legs stretched out in front; other furniture depicted in Chupicuareño art has the appearance of beds with curved handles.
