Pr𒈔ivate Collection, Conn✨ecticut, acquired between March 1962 and June 1968

Sotheby's, New York, May 14, 1996🎃, ♐lot 176, consigned by the above

Sotheby's, New York, May 11, 2012, lot 52

Private Collection,﷽ acquired at the above auction

The Maya sculpted figures and painted scenes in plaster and stucco as eloquently as they rendered reliefs and freestanding stele&nbs🐷p;in hard stone. Few examples of the prodigiou༒s amount of plaster and stucco sculpture have survived the centuries of exposure and erosion.

Stucco sculpture was made from a mixture of lime, gypsum and fine sand, sometimes applied over a mortar and stone armature. The complete sculpture was then painted in colors relevant to the type of deity or figure; this figure retains red and remnants of blue. This dignitary, with a classic elongated nosebridge, wears the cꦦourtly attire of turban, large ear ornament and swaggered collar; the torque of the body and turn of his head suggest his rapt attention at a ceremonial event. 

See Stierlin, Mexique, Terre des Dieux, Trésors de l'art précolombien, Geneva, 1998, pl. 222, for a stucco figure in ♔a similar posture.