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Jaguar effigy pottery vessel
Guanacaste-Nicoya culture
Period VI
1000–1350
Object Place: southwestern Nicaragua/northwestern Costa Rica, Guanacaste-Nicoya region
Medium/Technique
Earthenware with black and orange on cream slip paint
Dimensions
Overall: 34.3 x 29 x 26 cm (13 1/2 x 11 7/16 x 10 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Gift from the Collection of Shirley and Hy Zaret
Accession Number2008.191
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsCeramics – Pottery – Earthenware
DescriptionHuman-feline effigy jar portraying the transformed animal spirit form of a shamanic practitioner. Elements of the pose and body painting on the limbs recall figural portrayals of female shamans typical of the Nicoya-Guanacaste ceramic art tradition.
ProvenanceMaria Mercedes de Medina (b. 1920 - d. 2012), Paris and Lausanne; given by Maria Mercedes de Medina to a diplomat in Europe [see note 1]; May 12, 2005, anonymous (European private collections) sale, Sotheby's, New York, lot 241, to Lands Beyond Gallery, New York; sold by Lands Beyond Gallery to Hy and Shirley Zaret, Westport, CT; 2008, gift of Shirley Zaret to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 25, 2008)
NOTES:
[1] According to information in the 2005 Sotheby's catalogue. Maria Mercedes de Medina was of Nicaraguan origin. She may have inherited this vessel--as she did other works of art--from her father, Tomas Francisco de Medina y Wheelock. He worked at the diplomatic headquarters of Nicaragua in Paris as Chargé d'Affaires and Minister Plenipotentiary.
NOTES:
[1] According to information in the 2005 Sotheby's catalogue. Maria Mercedes de Medina was of Nicaraguan origin. She may have inherited this vessel--as she did other works of art--from her father, Tomas Francisco de Medina y Wheelock. He worked at the diplomatic headquarters of Nicaragua in Paris as Chargé d'Affaires and Minister Plenipotentiary.