A Rare and Fine Nayarit seated ‘Ball Player’
A Rare and Fine Nayarit seated ‘Ball Player’
Terracotta, Polychrome
Pre-Columbian / Mexico
100 BC to 250 BC AD
SIZE: 48cm high - 18¾ ins high
Terracotta, Polychrome
Pre-Columbian / Mexico
100 BC to 250 BC AD
SIZE: 48cm high - 18¾ ins high
A Rare and Fine Nayarit seated ‘Ball Player’
Terracotta, Polychrome
Pre-Columbian / Mexico
100 BC to 250 BC AD
SIZE: 48cm high - 18¾ ins high
Terracotta, Polychrome
Pre-Columbian / Mexico
100 BC to 250 BC AD
SIZE: 48cm high - 18¾ ins high
PUBLISHED:
The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1961
Before their arrival in the New World, the Spanish had never before seen games played with balls of rubber, a substance unknown in Europe. Upon their arrival in central Mexico, they were so enamoured with the Aztec ballgame that they sent a team of indigenous players to Spain to play before the court of Charles V. The game the Spanish witnessed in the Aztec region was just one manifestation of a long-lived and wide-ranging ballgame tradition in Mesoamerica. Cultures throughout Mesoamerica played games using rubber balls, the tradition extended to the Caribbean and the southwestern United States. Mesoamerican peoples played many types of ballgames, with different rules and styles of play.
The seated figure in our example sits wearing multiple earrings and nose rings, and is decorated with polychrome ‘slip’ of red, black, white and yellow. Clasping a ball between his cupped hands in front of his chest.
The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1961
Before their arrival in the New World, the Spanish had never before seen games played with balls of rubber, a substance unknown in Europe. Upon their arrival in central Mexico, they were so enamoured with the Aztec ballgame that they sent a team of indigenous players to Spain to play before the court of Charles V. The game the Spanish witnessed in the Aztec region was just one manifestation of a long-lived and wide-ranging ballgame tradition in Mesoamerica. Cultures throughout Mesoamerica played games using rubber balls, the tradition extended to the Caribbean and the southwestern United States. Mesoamerican peoples played many types of ballgames, with different rules and styles of play.
The seated figure in our example sits wearing multiple earrings and nose rings, and is decorated with polychrome ‘slip’ of red, black, white and yellow. Clasping a ball between his cupped hands in front of his chest.
Stanley J Seeger collection, USA
Sotheby’s, London, 5th March 2014
Ex Private UK collection
Sotheby’s, London, 5th March 2014
Ex Private UK collection
Princeton University, June 1961
A Rare and Fine Nayarit seated ‘Ball Player’
SOLD
