San Ildefonso Polychrome Storage Jar

Artist Martina Vigil (American, San Ildefonso, 1856 - 1916)

Artist Florentino Montoya (American, San Ildefonso, 1858 - 1918)

Datec. 1902-1910

Dimensions19 1/2 × 23 1/4 × 23 1/4 in. (49.5 × 59.1 × 59.1 cm)

MediumNative clay, pigment

ClassificationCeramics

Credit LineMr. and Mrs. Robert J. Barber Art Fund

Object number

2019.61

Not on View

DescriptionA large San Ildefonso polychrome jar of exaggerated classic form, with flat base, compressed globular body and flaring rim, finely painted in black and red over a crackled cream slip, with a wide frieze of bold geometric and scrolling elements, perhaps stylized bird motifs, surmounted by a collar of elongated triangles enclosing stepped designs, checkered panels alternating with hooked devices on the neck.

Label TextAttributed to the skilled San Ildefonso master artists Martina Vigil and Florentino Montoya, this rare and exceptional jar is well-known within the field of Southwestern pueblo pottery. Not only prized for its aesthetic beauty, it is also remarkable for its size and the technical skills of the husband and wife artists who created it. Measuring nearly two feet in diameter, the jar was built using traditional hand-coiling techniques. Martina Vigil and Florentino Montoya were elders in master potter Maria Martinez’s tribe, the San Ildefonso Pueblo (see works by her and in this gallery). Martinez would later recall how their style and technique influenced her own work. Newly acquired in 2019, this pottery jar is an important addition to the Museum’s growing collection of Southwestern pueblo pottery, which includes the striking Blackware Jar by Maria Martinez and the Santo Domingo Pueblo Polychrome Pottery Jar on view in this gallery.Published ReferencesSotheby's, Sotheby's Fine American Indian Art, catalogue, New York, May 26, 1996, p. 6 (repr.).

Schaaf, George, Pueblo Pottery: 750 Artist Biographies, 2000, p. 230 (see also, p. 152).