Photographer: Claudia Obrocki | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - ShareAlike 4.0 InternationalRear view | Photographer: Andrea Blumtritt | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International
Large, seated, anthropomorphic figure with crossed legs. The hollow, female sculpture has an oversized head and rattle balls. She rests both hands on her thighs. There are small, round openings at the navel and neck. The object has been smoothed, sanded, primed, painted and polished. The polish and paint are partially eroded. 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 cheeks, breasts, upper arms and ankles are painted with black-brown geometric motifs. The clothed figure wears a sleeveless cloak on his chest and back, with a red St Andrew's cross on the front and back. Symbolic meaning: Stevenson-Day (1997) interprets the female sculptures of the Galo Policromo group as shamans. The oköm of the historical bribri painted crosses on their chests and arms to ward off transcendent beings during the burial ceremonies they presided over (Bozzoli de Wille 1979, 1982). 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)
