|
HOME :
Pre-Columbian Art :
Basalt Sukia Figures : Atlantic Watershed Basalt Sukia Figure
|
 |
|
|
|
Atlantic Watershed Basalt Sukia Figure - PF.3215
Origin: Costa Rica
Circa: 1000
AD
to 1550
AD
Dimensions:
13" (33.0cm) high
x 7" (17.8cm) wide
Collection: Pre-Columbian
Style: Atlantic Watershed
Medium: Basalt
$7,500.00
Location: United States
|
|
|
| Photo Gallery |
|
|
| Description |
From the depths of the Costa Rican jungle, this
sukia figure has emerged along with a
fascinating religious concept. The sukia figure is
most probably a shaman: a tribal medicine man
or diviner. He is shown playing a flute, smoking
or blowing through a tube. All of these ritual
activities were carried out by shamans in Pre-
Columbian Central America, but the latter two
activities best describe what these seated figures
are doing, perhaps as part of a curing ritual. It
was most probably produced for ritual services.
One might speculate that such sculpture was
kept in an indigenous home for much the same
reasons that a crucifix is hung on the wall of a
modern Costa Rican home. The shaman's eyes
are softly closed in a meditative state and his lips
gently surround the tube that his hands and
fingers perfectly hold in place. The composition
of the figure is simple, yet radiates a tremendous
aura of divinity and sanctity, similar to the
Buddha figures of Eastern Asia.
- (PF.3215)
|
| |
|
