TEOTIHUACAN III ALABASTER MASK

CLASSIC, CA. A.D. 450-650

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TEOTIHUACAN III ALABASTER MASK
Classic, ca. A.D. 450-650
The funerary mask with serene expression capturing the idealized aesthetics of the classical Teotihuacan period, with crisply carved naturalistic parted lips, and deeply drilled at the corners for inlays, aquiline nose, almond-shaped eyes under thinly arched brows, rectangular ears pierced, and the reverse deeply hollowed out with a wide rim; in rich pale green tecali.
Height 8 1/4 in. (20 cm.)

拍品專文

Cf. Teotihuacan, pl.31.
One of the pre-eminent sculptural statements of the Teotihuacan is captured in their stone masks. The basically naturalistic facial form is here brought to an idealized level of abstraction.

The original use of these masks is uncertain but they may have been attached to the outside of burial bundles, or attached to supports as deity head effigies. The tradition of such lapidary work extends directly back to the Olmec to be re-interpreted by the urban Teotihuacan sculptors.