Beautiful portrait mask

Beautiful portrait mask

featuring a dignitary's face with a youthful, vigorous expression, the superciliary arches sculpted in relief, and the ears set in two rectangular spaces. Carved and polished hard stone, marks of time, lateral hole intended for suspension or insertion on a wooden structure (the mystery remains), small chip on the edge of the nose. Proto-Teotihuacan, Chontal, Mexico, Classical period, 100 B.C. - 450 A.D. 14.7 x 14.7 cm Provenance: acquired by its current owner at the Sotheby's New York sale on May 17, 2007, lot no. 183 in the catalog.