Mayan mask. Pre-Columbian America, Maya area, Late Classic period, ca. 600-900 A.D.

Mayan mask. Pre-Columbian America, Maya area, Late Classic period, ca. 600-900 AD.
Carved stone.
With export permit.
Provenance: Jacob Epstein; Christie's London, Tribal Art, 1995, lot 36; Romy Rey, London.
Condition: general wear, erosions, surface deposits and small losses consistent with age.
Measurements: 10 x 9 x 4 cm.

Mayan mask in carved stone, of small format and great expressive intensity, datable to the Late Classic period. The face is constructed by means of a powerful formal simplification: incised eyes, prominent nose and horizontal mouth, concentrating the force of the image in the frontality and in the compact volume of the stone.

The piece responds to the Mayan taste for images with a strong symbolic charge, where the face functions as presence, emblem and spiritual identity. Its synthetic, almost architectural treatment gives the whole a remarkable visual modernity, without losing its ritual and archaeological dimension.

The known provenance, having been exhibited at Christie's London and in old European collections, adds special documentary interest to the work. Its reduced scale, the nobility of the material and the restrained expressiveness of the face make it a very attractive testimony of pre-Columbian lapidary art.