1971.61 Pendant: Miniature Ballcourt (Guerrero, Mexico, West Mexico, Mezcala style)

Small carvings of human figures are a common sculptural theme among the various cultural groups of both Central and West Mexico. Lapidary artists favored a variety of precious materials for their small-scale sculptures, including alabaster, obsidian, jade, serpentine, and other varieties of greenstone. This is a fine example of stone carving from Late Formative (Late Preclassic) Guerrero. This region is known for a wide variety of sculptural styles from multiple cultural groups that inhabited this area of southwest Mexico. The most well-known Guerrero style is called Mezcala, primarily small-scale abstract stone sculptures depicting human figures, masks, and temple-like buildings. This example depicts a multi-leveled ballcourt, and the two holes drilled on each side of the carving suggest it was originally worn as a pendant. The ball game was centrally important in Mesoamerican ideology, and this pendant illustrates its significance as early as the Formative (Preclassic) period. During the Classic period (150/300-650/900 CE), city centers created ball courts where they played ritual ballgames with their sacrificial victims, highborn lords who were taken in battle. Typical of the Mezcala style, the carving appears simple and elementary in form, while also very modern in its abstraction and expression.

Mexican artist Miguel Covarrubias identified the Mezcala lithic, or stone, art style in the 1940s. While the characteristic geometric forms of the figures and temples make them easy to recognize, placing them in time has been challenging, for none had been found in an archaeological context in Guerrero. In 1989, seven objects in the Mezcala style were found beneath the floors of residential complexes at Ahuinahuac, and associated materials have been securely dated to the Late Formative (Late Preclassic) period, between c. 500 and 200 BCE. Other objects in the style have since been found in context, at least one associated with material from the Late Classic period (c. 700–900 CE). Additional contextual information is needed to determine whether the presence of Mezcala-style objects in late contexts represents heirloom status, as it did in the Mezcala style objects found at the Templo Mayor at the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán, or a living sculptural tradition that persisted through centuries. The emphasis on stone sculpture in the Guerrero region also suggests an interaction with the Olmec peoples of the Gulf Coast, and many Olmec style objects have been found near this area.

Pre-Columbian (American): AAT: 300016619

Mezcala (West Coast Mesoamerican styles / Guerrero): AAT: 300017193

West Coast Mesoamerican styles: AAT: 300017196

Mexico (nation): TGN: 7005560

Guerrero (state/Mexico): TGN: 7005585

Mezcala (inhabited place / Mexcala): TGN: 1017856

Balsas (inhabited place): TGN: 7351418

Río Balsas (stream): TGN: 7404865

Río Balsas (river): TGN: 1121636

jadeite (mineral): AAT: 300011121

carving: AAT: 300053149

incising: AAT: 300053847

polishing (finishing): AAT: 300053867

drillwork (sculpture technique): AAT: 300186211

Formative Period (Preclassic): AAT: 300016973

Preclassic (Archaic / Formative / Mesoamerican period): AAT: 300016967

Late Preclassic Period (Formative): AAT: 300016976

worn costume accessories: AAT: 300209274

jewelry: AAT: 300209286

pendants (jewelry): AAT: 300046002

sculpture: AAT: 300047090

effigies (funerary sculpture): AAT: 300047108

ritual objects: AAT: 300312158

models (repesentations): AAT: 300047753

ball courts (Mesoamerican): AAT: 300007324

replicas (reproduction): AAT: 300015642

ball games (games / activities): AAT: 300239662

stairs: AAT: 300003228

platforms (general): AAT: 300375665

creation (doctrinal concept): AAT: 300069002

mountains: AAT: 300008795

Creation Mountain (Mesoamerican doctrinal / religious concept): DMA

myth: AAT: 300201023

rituals (events): AAT: 300065284

sacrifices: AAT: 300263243

blood: AAT: 300011797

bloodletting (self-sacrifice / ritual): DMA

captive (prisoners of war): AAT: 300259895

nobility (nobles / aristocracy): AAT: 300025942

battles: AAT: 300185692

wars: AAT: 300055314

Covarrubias_Miguel: ULAN: 500122721

geometric abstraction: AAT: 300056509

geometric shape: AAT: 300263819

buildings (structures): AAT: 300004792

dwellings (residential structures): AAT: 300005425

Ahuinahuac (deserted settlement / Mexico): DMA

Templo Mayor (historic structure): TGN: 7032716

Tenochtitlán (Mexico City): TGN: 7007227

Olmec: AAT: 300017051

abstract: AAT: 300108127

abstraction: AAT: 300056508

miniature (size): AAT: 300121995

From 1971: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, General Acquisitions Fund, purchased from Teochita, Inc., New York [1], [2]

[1] The main source for this provenance is Collections Record Sheet (n.d., copy in Dallas Museum of Art Collections Records Object File). Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.

[2] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art~Read more about architectural models from the ancient Americas.

Apply to objects where number equals 1971.61