Rain Messenger Kachina, Sio Shalako Katsina, Hopi,... - Lot 16 - Giquello

Lot 16
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Estimation :
8000 - 10000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 21 450EUR
Rain Messenger Kachina, Sio Shalako Katsina, Hopi,... - Lot 16 - Giquello
Rain Messenger Kachina, Sio Shalako Katsina, Hopi, Arizona, USA Circa 1900 Carved wood (cottonwood root), pigments and feathers H. 22.5 cm (30.5 cm with feathers) Rain Messenger Kachina doll, Sio Shalako Katsina H. 8 ¾ in Provenance: - Former John C. Hill Collection, Arizona - Acquired from previous in 2009 Superb rare and early example of a kachina depicting the "Sio Shalako" rain messenger. Appearances of this spirit are rare in the Hopi Kachina calendar. His dance usually occurs when the need for rain is most intense. This spirit originally came from the neighboring Zuni and seems to have entered the Hopi pantheon during the first part of the 19th century. The prefix "Sio" in the name of this kachina (Sio Shalako) means in the Hopi language "from the Zuni neighbors". The first known Sio Shalako dance on the Hopi mesas dates back to the 1850s. In the seminal work "Dolls of the Tusayan Indians", published by the Heye Foundation, Museum of the American Indian in New York in 1894, Jesse Walter Fewkes illustrates a spectacular example of this kachina (page 19, plate VIII). In the carving shown here, the figure wears a long white shawl covering his arms completely. Beneath the shawl is a characteristic garment of stylized feathers. The mask of the kachina is decorated with two large curved horns. Feathers arranged in a crown frame the back of the mask. The eyes are bulging and the mouth recalls the shape of a stylized snout. Note the superb sobriety of the composition with its black and white dominance and the intense hieraticism that emanates from the figure.
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