Unsigned San Ildefonso Polychrome Bowl [SOLD]

It is always difficult to be absolutely sure of the makers of pottery when they are not signed, but there are clues one can use to narrow the field to a select number of artists.  This Polychrome bowl exhibits evidence that it could have been painted by Julian Martinez which would then indicate that it was made by Maria.  There is some indication too that Dolorita Vigil (1883-1918) or her aunt and uncle, Martina Vigil and Florentine Montoya, could have been the artists.  Then the question becomes whether it is important to know the artists or should one just enjoy the work of art without attributing it to artists.

Julian was a very talented artist and a very curious individual.  He exposed himself to sources of prehistoric pottery through his eagerness to work with anthropologists and museums.  In 1907, excavations began at what is now Bandelier National Monument.  Julian was hired as one of the diggers at the site.  He was witness to pottery shards being unearthed, as was Maria.  They both were very interested in the designs they saw.  When the next digging season started a year later, Maria and Julian were already making pottery with designs based on the shards they had seen.  All of these early examples were Polychrome wares.

Julian rapidly became the leading painter of pottery at San Ildefonso.  He was a perfectionist and an innovator, always looking for new designs and ideas to incorporate.  He compiled a notebook of designs that he liked.  In accordance with tradition, the notebook was burned at his death.  Julian adapted designs from prehistoric Mimbres and Sikyatki pottery as well as designs from pueblo historic pottery.  The feather design seen on so many black-on-black plates and jars was a design from a Mimbres bowl, a picture of which Julian had seen at the museum.  He adapted it from the bowl of the Mimbres to the shapes of Maria’s pottery.

Julian was also impressed with Hopi prehistoric Sikyatki pottery designs and particularly impressed with the work of Nampeyo.  Jesse Walter Fewkes had published a report of ancient Hopi pottery in 1898 with full-color plates.  It most certainly was a source for Julian to see Hopi designs. 

This bowl features black round balls with three parallel lines pendant from their bottoms.  They hang from the triangle designs as if fringe on the edge of a decorative pillow.  It is quite conceivable that Julian saw a picture of a Polacca Polychrome jar made by Nampeyo in the 1880s that had such black round balls with lines.  The orange diamonds in the design are framed in very precise black parallel lines.  The rim has a pair of black framing lines and the rim design is outlined in parallel black lines from which the black balls are suspended.  The design was executed with absolute precision and consistent paint density.  Julian was one of the best pottery painters at the pueblo at the turn of the century and was certainly one who could have painted the design on this bowl. 

Dolorita Vigil and Martina and Florentino frequently covered the entire vessel with white slip.  Most potters did not put the white slip to the bottom of the jar or bowl but left the natural tan clay exposed.  This bowl does have white slip from rim to underside.  Did Maria and Julian ever do this? 

Regardless of the artist or artists who made this beautiful bowl, it is a delight to see.  It is symmetrical in shape and precisely painted.  The design fits the bowl perfectly.  It could not have been better executed.

Condition:  The slip on the exterior of the bowl has had some restoration.  It does not appear that the bowl has been broken nor has any of the design area had any repair.  Some restoration to the cream slip on the lower portion of the bowl has occurred.  Some of the slip possibly had flaked off or perhaps a blowout occurred during firing.

Provenance: from a gentleman in Arizona

Recommended Reading: Modern Pueblo Pottery 1880-1960 by Francis Harlow