This beautiful terracotta sculpture seems to be an image of a voluptuous young woman right out of a daily life scene in ancient Nayarit. Wearing a skirt and long, luscious...
This beautiful terracotta sculpture seems to be an image of a voluptuous young woman right out of a daily life scene in ancient Nayarit. Wearing a skirt and long, luscious hair falling onto her chest in two locks, her femininity is beautifully accentuated. She holds her hair with one hand and a small jar on her left shoulder with the other hand. The wide-eyes on her young face is refreshing, and her feminine beauty shown by her large breasts, hips, and thighs--the signs of fertility and birth--makes the figure seem like a young mother goddess. The idea of fertility was extremely important in Ancient Mesoamerica. Producing life was like magic, and people even considered death as re-birth, believing in life after death. Found in a shaft-tomb, this lovely sculpture of a woman perhaps symbolized youth and re-birth for the deceased's after-life. Or perhaps such marvelous figure was a part of ritual wishing for fertility and prosperity, for humans as well as nature upon which ancient Mesoamericans depended on. The smooth surface and the graceful curves of the sculpture soothe the eye of its viewers. And as we look into this gentle figure filled with rich symbolism, we feel as if our spirits are drawn into this graceful sculpture.