Dancing figure

These figures (the present example and UEA 864) stand with their legs slightly bent in a position suggesting the movements of ritual dancers. One (UEA 864) is wearing what is probably a feathered tunic, perhaps similar to the Central Mexican ehuatl (but open in the back and without the short skirt), a feathered garment associated with specific groups of warriors (Anawalt, 1981: 50-2). His ornaments include a double-strand bead necklace, bracelets on both wrists, and two large discs on each leg. He wears a helmet with broad chin-strap, and an elaborate removable head-dress. It is not known if this semi-circular head-dress was meant to be worn with the radiating elements (most likely representing feathers and reeds) in a frontal or profile fashion: both positions are seen in other Colima-style ceramics with non-removable head-dresses. In parts of modern Mexico, the feather and reed head-dresses of dancers are also orientated both ways (Leyenaar, 1981: pls. 2, 4).

The second figure (UEA 865) is similar in appearance, although it has double discs at the knee and further discs on the upper arms. The dancer wears a netted costume on the body and legs, which may represent a form of cotton armour similar to garments known from Central Mexico in the Aztec period (Anawalt, 1981: 46-51). This garment is not open at the back; there is a spatulate bow-tie projection at the small of the back. Lynton and Lynton (1986: no. 27) illustrate a figure with a similar costume and a removable head-dress.

The head-dress has both feathers and netting in its decoration, and because the figures were acquired together it is not certain to which the head-dress belongs. It fits both. It is likely that a second head-dress once existed. Losses have been restored and cracks filled on figures, bases and head-dress.

Joanne Pillsbury & Ted. J. J. Leyenaar, 1997

Entry from Steven Hooper (ed.), Catalogue to the Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection. University of East Anglia, 1997.