Rear view | Photographer: Andrea Blumtritt | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International
Large, seated, anthropomorphic figure spreading her outstretched legs. The hollow, female sculpture has rattle balls and a small opening at the navel. There are two further opposing openings on the neck, which may have been used for suspension. The pottery was smoothed, slurried, primed, painted and polished. The polishing and painting have eroded in places. The base of the head was glued. The sculpture has a red-brown base colour, which is painted black-brown and red. The figure's hairstyle is divided into two parts by a vertical skull tonsure. The figure is leaning both arms on its thighs. The eye sockets, lips and fingers are painted red. The cheeks, arms, breasts and legs show black-brown, geometric motifs that seem to allude to textile patterns. The sculpture wears a pubic bandage that is partially painted red. Her back remains undecorated. Symbolic meaning: Stevenson-Day (1997) interprets the female sculptures of the Galo Policromo group as shamans. Cultural significance: the anthropomorphic figures of the zoned two-coloured ceramics (Rosales Esgrafiado) and the Policromo Antiguo (Galo Policromo group) come mainly from burials. Compared to the sculptures of later ceramic groups (Mora Policromo, variedad Guabal), they show great representational realism. The Galo and Carillo Policromo groups (800-500d.C.) represent the first truly polychrome ceramics produced in the Gran Nicoya region. Their design (shape, colouring, individual motifs) is strongly reminiscent of the Ulua Policromo group (950-550d.C.). (Künne 2004)
