Eduardo Paredes, Guatemala City, before July 1973; Edward H. Merrin Gallery, New York, until 1974; Mr. and Mrs. Samuel H. Lindenbaum, New York, partial gift, 1974–2015

Teotihuacan, Art from the City of the Gods [M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, 26 May – 31 October 1993], Cat. No. 66, pp. 214-215.

Hellmuth, Nicholas M. 1975. The Escuintla Hoards: Teotihuacan Art in Guatemala. F.L.A.A.R. Progress Reports vol. 1 no. 2, Plate 42A-B, p. 58. Photographs by Edwin Shook; Architectural Digest June 1981 (cover); Berjonneau, Gerald et al. Rediscovered Masterpieces of Mesoamerica. 1985. New York, Editions Arts. Photographs by Justin Kerr. Cat. No. 153, p. 118; Berrin, Kathleen, and Esther Pasztory, editors. 1993. Teotihuacan: Art from the City of the Gods. New York, Thames and Hudson. Cat. No. 66, pp. 214-215, 1994.

Cumulative facts and figures

This object was first photographed in 1973, first published in 1975 and featured in four subsequent publications, and was exhibited in 1993. This figurine comes from the Pacific Coast region of Guatemala, from which the Museum only has one other object. This style of “hollow” or “host” figurines found in Guatemala is indicative of the long-distance influence of the great Mexican city of Teotihuacan, the largest in the Precolumbian Americas. This successful and long-lasting center of merchants, artists, and others later became a site of pilgrimage for the Aztecs. These rare “host figures” were collected by artists such as Diego Rivera, and are considered among the most evocative images in Teotihuacan art. The proposed example is one of the largest and finest known.