Lot 26

Six Guerrero Mezcala Greenstone Axe God Figures

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Lot 26
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Six Guerrero Mezcala Greenstone Axe God Figures
Six Guerrero Mezcala Greenstone Axe God Figures
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Six Guerrero Mezcala Greenstone Axe God Figures

Estimate: $2,000 - $3,000

Starting Bid: $1,000

(0 Bids)
by Artemis Fine Arts
June 5, 2026 9:00 AM MDT
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

Pre-Columbian, Mezcala culture, Guerrero, Mexico, ca. 500 BCE to 300 CE. A consortium of six standing figures hewn from the verdant lithology of the Balsas River basin, each a study in the Mezcala carver's particular genius for distilling the human form into its most essential geometry. The lot ranges from approximately 6.9 cm to 13.2 cm in height, executed in mottled greenstones, serpentinite, and metavolcanic varieties whose colors traverse a spectrum from muted celadon to deep moss, several retaining the warm earthen accretions of long burial. The Mezcala lapidary worked without metal tools, coaxing form from celt-shaped blanks through a patient choreography of string-sawing, abrasion, and percussion. The resulting incisions, those clean parallel grooves defining shoulder from torso, arm from flank, the diagnostic M-shaped notch between the legs, are achieved through cord and quartz sand rather than blade, a technical lineage echoing the Olmec to the east while pursuing an aesthetic entirely its own. Size of largest: 1.9" W x 5.2" H (4.8 cm x 13.2 cm)

The faces, where rendered, present the canonical T-shaped configuration: a single horizontal stroke for the brow flowing into the vertical column of the nose, mouth and eyes often suppressed entirely in favor of austere planar geometry.

This grouping demonstrates the typological breadth scholars have catalogued (after Gay and Covarrubias) within the tradition. The shortest example, a compact perforated head, presents a stylized face suitable for suspension as pendant or pectoral. Two figures display the classic axe-god morphology: elongated bodies tapering to a tongued or bifurcated lower terminus, arms folded across the chest in the attitude of reverent stillness. A larger reductive form approaches near total abstraction, the human silhouette implied through subtle constrictions alone, while two further pieces articulate the body more legibly with raised arms, defined waist, and incised knees.

The function of these images remains debated and likely plural. They served as votive offerings, funerary companions, and perhaps as effigies of ancestors or supernaturals in ritual contexts long obscured by time. Centuries after their making, the Mexica encountered such pieces as heirlooms or excavated treasures and incorporated them into their own offerings at the Templo Mayor, where Mezcala figures have been recovered in dedicatory caches, a remarkable instance of one civilization curating the relics of another.

For the discerning collector, a Mezcala figure offers something rare in the ancient repertoire: a sculptural philosophy that anticipates by two millennia the reductive vocabularies of Brancusi, Modigliani, and Henry Moore, all of whom looked to such pre-Columbian abstractions for inspiration. To acquire six in concert is to assemble a small chorus, a comparative study in the grammar of form that no single figure could provide alone.

Provenance: private Colorado, USA collection

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Item # 200453

  • Condition: Weathering with nicks and abrasions to surfaces, as well as a few chips in areas, all commensurate with age. Otherwise, all present very nicely with liberal remaining detail and scattered earthen deposits and encrustations. Two have old collection labels on versos.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $299 $25
$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $20,000