Las Cruces Finest Auction: Furniture and Works of Art Closed (#28268437)

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Lot # E544

Hand-Carved Wood Parrot Dance Mask, Mexican Folk Art View Watchlist >

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Winning Bid: $67.00
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Lot # E544
System ID # 28457628

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Description

Hand-Carved Wood Parrot Dance Mask, Mexican Folk Art

A bold piece of Mexican carved folk art, this wood mask takes the form of a perched green parrot with wings spread wide to frame the wearer's face. The bird's head crowns the top, painted with a deep red cap, ochre-rimmed eyes, and a hooked beak with pierced nostrils; the scalloped breast feathers cascade down the body to a pair of clutching talons. Zigzag chip-carved patterning animates the wings across every surface, and the whole form was worked from a single solid piece of wood — a technically demanding choice that speaks to a confident hand.

Masks of this type are made for traditional danzas across Mexico, with the strongest concentrations in Guerrero, Michoacán, and Oaxaca, where animal characters populate village festivals tied to harvest cycles, saints' days, and pre-Hispanic ritual. Mexican dance masks are most commonly carved from soft, lightweight woods — cedar (cedro), willow (sauce), and white sapote (zapote blanco) being among the most typical, chosen for their workability and light wear weight. The parrot carries deep symbolic weight in Mesoamerican cosmology — associated with the sun, with tropical abundance, and in some traditions with the capacity of birds to carry messages between worlds. The pair of oval eye holes bored through the breast confirm ceremonial wear; the twisted-wire hanger at the reverse signals its later life as a display piece. Hand-painted throughout, unmarked, and carved without assembly — a single log transformed into a complete ceremonial object.

CONDITION

Good with no remarkable damage. Minor paint loss to scattered areas of the green ground and to the red headcap, consistent with age and handling. Small worm holes are present across the reverse face of the wood, and the back surface shows the darkening and checking typical of older carvings that have been handled and stored over many years.

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