Guanacaste-Nicoya Terracotta Trophy Head, 600 CE - 1100 CE
Terracotta
8
PF.3239
There is a soft and gentle quality inherent in this facial expression. The down-turned eyes and thick eyelids may remind us of the pious saints depicted in Italian Renaissance paintings....
There is a soft and gentle quality inherent in this facial expression. The down-turned eyes and thick eyelids may remind us of the pious saints depicted in Italian Renaissance paintings. The mouth is completely relaxed and down-turned, as well. The entire composition of the face is graced with an angelic quality integrated with a compliant submissiveness. Perhaps the incised decorations on the forehead, the sides of the face and the four circles reveal the ideology or god, which this vessel has been created in reverence for. There are geometric designs encircling the opening and at the back of the head. The sun-drenched glaze still reveals its glimmering surface in certain areas. The wide opening and brim of this vessel may have been created for the purpose to stir liquids together during rituals. We are drawn again and again through this sensitive composition, compelled to pleasantly remember the golden moments of our own angelic nature.