This male hunchback effigy vessel comes from
the Guanacaste-Nicoya polychrome tradition,
the Galo polychrome style. Its mirror-bright
burnished surfaces are technically unsurpassed
by any Pre-Columbian pottery, and yellows, reds,
oranges, creams, maroons, and blacks of the
polychrome decorations are impressively vivid.
Among such sculptures are the full human
figures with elaborate representations of tattoos
or body paint. Such a brilliant polychrome
tradition represents an important social
dimension; when the northern trade network
that brought jade, slate-backed pyrite mirrors,
foreign ceramics, and other luxury goods, the
Nicoyans responded by producing their own
special purpose pottery. Inspired by northern
models, it also incorporated local and southern
elements, forming a dazzling hybrid style that
was traded around Central America and southern
Meso-America in the centuries to come.
Elaborately decorated with colors and patterns,
this sculpted male hunchback figure is partially
kneeling, as if he is about to make a movement
or a gesture. A fine example of Galo Polychrome
figures, he provides a wealth of ethnographic
detail because of the realistic style. His
earspools, body painting or tattooing, and the
hunched back are all vividly shown. Obviously a
special male personage, he also wears a flat
headdress. His almond-shaped eyes outlined
with black paint, his lips colored with light
orange, and his cheeks enhanced with patterns,
his bold face has an unforgettable charisma. With
his mouth slightly open, he seems surprised, as
if he just saw something magical. Hunchbacks
were often attributed with magical power--
perhaps this man was chosen as a ritual
performer. Although we may not know what he
saw, we can feel his emotions and aesthetic
beauty of his graceful sculptural form.
- (PF.3386)
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