Lot 22

Olmec & Olmecoid Proto-Maya Terracotta Figures - Group of Three

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Lot 22
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Olmec & Olmecoid Proto-Maya Terracotta Figures - Group of Three
Olmec & Olmecoid Proto-Maya Terracotta Figures - Group of Three
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Olmec & Olmecoid Proto-Maya Terracotta Figures - Group of Three

Estimate: $1,000 - $1,500

Starting Bid: $500

(0 Bids)
by Artemis Fine Arts
August 6, 2026 9:00 AM MDT
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

Pre-Columbian, Mexico, Olmec and Olmecoid / Proto-Maya, ca. 1200–400 BCE. A trio of hand-modeled terracotta figures that carry the ancestral memory of Mesoamerica's earliest sculptural voice. The standing figure, buff-clay and unclothed, cradles a swollen, gravid belly, her hands drawn to her sides, an unmistakable emblem of fertility and generative power. Beside her a seated female, softer in tone, holds a bundle to her chest and wears a sash and loincloth, her coiffed hair rendered in incised strands. The third, a solitary head raised on a mount, distills the Olmec canon: fleshy cheeks, downturned mouth, and heavy-lidded eyes with faint traces of pigment. Together they trace the passage from Olmec convention into the Olmecoid, proto-Maya idiom that flowered along the Gulf and Pacific slopes. Such figures likely served votive and ancestral roles, buried offerings that bound the living to lineage and land. Size of largest (standing figure): 2.3" W x 4.8" H (5.8 cm W x 12.2 cm H).

The Olmec, flourishing along Mexico's Gulf Coast from roughly 1200 to 400 BCE, are widely regarded as the "mother culture" of Mesoamerica, transmitting a durable visual vocabulary, the drooping infantile mouth, the almond eye, the emphasis on rulership and fecundity, that later peoples absorbed and transformed. "Olmecoid" and "proto-Maya" describe works made beyond the Olmec heartland that adopt these conventions while pointing toward the emerging traditions of the Maya lowlands. Female figures with emphasized abdomens belong to a widespread fertility iconography, likely deposited as votive or funerary offerings meant to secure agricultural abundance and the continuity of lineage.

Provenance: private Colorado, USA collection; ex-private Los Angeles, California, USA collection; ex-major gallery, Beverly Hills, California, USA, primarily acquired between 1985 and 2005

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Item # 202812

  • Condition: Head is a fragment of a larger piece. Largest has had head reattached with break line visible. All have weathering and surface wear as shown, commensurate with age. Otherwise, seated figure is intact and all are good examples with nice remaining detail.

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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