Noreen Simplicio Zuni Polychrome Olla — Deer & Lizard, 1993 

Signed and dated December 1993, this polychrome jar by Zuni artist Noreen Simplicio is one of the most compositionally ambitious examples of the form. Simplicio — who began her training in 1977 under Acoma master Jennie Laate, the potter credited with reviving Zuni ceramic tradition, and later apprenticed with sculptor Angelina Medina — was five years into her national competition career when this piece was made, collecting ribbons at Santa Fe Indian Market and the Heard. She hand-coils from traditional Zuni clay beds, makes her own mineral pigments, and fires using traditional methods. The wide, low disc form carries a full exterior program in the classic Zuni tricolor palette: white slip ground, dark brown, and orange-red. Two feather-and-rain canopy panels divide the equatorial band into figurative bays, each sheltering a deer-with-heart-line — the most historically embedded motif in Zuni pottery, where the red breath-line from mouth to heart signifies the sacred life force of the animal and the spiritual bond between hunter and hunted. Ground-level flowers, dot-berry clusters, and leaf forms anchor the scene below; densely hatched geometric panels and scrolling volutes fill the spaces between. The freehand hatching inside the canopy arches — lines spaced 2–3mm apart, consistent across a curved surface — is among the clearest technical indicators of a serious hand at work.

The lizard is Simplicio's personal signature motif, and this piece deploys it across three separate registers. A long painted lizard, rendered in brown with white circle-spots, spirals around the shoulder in the painted field. A separately hand-modeled sculptural lizard is applied directly to the rim — its head and forelegs gripping the edge, its tail descending into the painted composition below — painted to match its flat counterpart so that the two read as a single continuous creature moving between dimensions. Look down into the vessel and a third lizard appears, sculpted on the unslipped terracotta interior, visible only from above. That detail — executed for the collector who looks in, not the casual viewer who doesn't — is the mark of a piece made at full effort.

CONDITION

Excellent. Slip, painted surfaces, and sculptural lizard figure are all fully intact with no chips, cracks, paint loss, or repairs. Minor shelf wear to the base consistent with display.

DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS

• Height: 3 1/2"
• Diameter: 6 1/2"
• Form: Shouldered jar / olla
• Palette: White slip ground; dark brown, orange-red
• Technique: Hand-coiled; traditional mineral pigments; traditional firing
• Decoration: Full exterior polychrome; applied sculptural lizard on rim; painted lizard motif on interior base
• Signed: Noreen Simplicio / Zuni / © 12/93 (painted on base)

Please Note: Soup for Scale in Photo