Published Seated Statue of a Coquera of the Capulí Culture

Culture: Capuli Culture/Southern Colombia

Period: 850-1500 A.D.

Material: Terracotta

Dimensions: 13.3 cm high

Price: 2 400 Euro

Ref: 11090

Provenance: Austrian private collection Prof. Josef Mairitsch (19387-1994) with the inventory number M 61. Acquired between 1960 and the early 1980s. Thence in the family estate. With copies of the catalogue page and inventory list.

Condition: Intact

Description: Wonderfully preserved, hollow seated statue of a Coquera, a woman who chews coca leaves. She sits with a hunched back on a plinth. The large round face is framed by a pageboy haircut and is decorated with black stripes in negative painting. The woman has protruding, large eyes due to chewing coca, her mouth is wide open, the right cheek bulged. The undressed figure rests with the right elbow on the right knee, her hand on the breast. The left hand rests on the left knee. Striking is that the arms protrude without shoulders directly from the upper body, the legs without pelvis directly from the loins. Contrary to the male Coquero statuettes, who sit on stools, the female Coqueras crouch on the ground. Female and male coca chewer statuettes are typical for the Capulí culture. They were used by shamans to keep special ingredients for cult acts, such as funerary rites. See for the type Armand J. Labbé “Colombia Antes De Colón”, Bogota 1988, p. 171f, no. 125. The present statuette is published in: Josef Mairitsch “Columbus am Wörthersee. Amerika vor Columbus.” Catalogue for the special exhibition of the cultural department of the state capital Klagenfurt from 1 June to 31 October 1992, page 93, no. 15.02.