234 - Mask depicting a human face. The nose is prominent; the eyebrows, eyes, and mouth are strongly defined. The back is hollow, with holes for suspension.

Mask depicting a human face. The nose is prominent; the eyebrows, eyes, and mouth are strongly defined. The back is hollow, with holes for suspension. Alabaster. Height: 18.5 cm. Mexico. Chontal. 100 BCE–300 CE. (Right ear missing) Provenance: Millard Sheets Collection, USA Christie’s New York, May 25, 1977, lot no. 143 (illustrated) Private collection, Brussels (illustrated in a 1986 insurance inventory) Passed down through the family This exceptional mask demonstrates the sculptor’s mastery, as he brings out the full humanity of the depicted figure from a single block of translucent alabaster. The modeling of the face—with the eyes and mouth carved in relief and centered by the long, aquiline nose with flared nostrils—exudes an impressive serenity. The sculptural quality of this mask indicates the high hierarchical status of the person with whom it was associated. The patina, with its calcifications and minor signs of wear caused by age and the environment of this work’s resting place over thousands of years, serves as a testament to the passage of time from its creation to the present day. Millard Sheets (1907–1989), a renowned American artist, was a discerning collector of pre-Columbian art in California and Mexico during the pre- and post-war years. His collection, centered primarily on the arts of the Colima, Nayarit, and Jalisco cultures of Mexico’s west coast, also included several exquisite works from the Mezcala and Chontal cultures. These cultures, discovered shortly before the late 1940s and first identified by the artist Miguel Covarrubias, have profoundly influenced the art world with their minimalism and timelessness.