Doug & Charlotte Vigil San Ildefonso Pueblo Redware Maiden Figure, 2006

A hand-built and hand-burnished redware figure by Doug and Charlotte Vigil of San Ildefonso Pueblo, signed and dated 2006 on the underside. The form depicts a stylized maiden cradling a small olla in her arms, her head bowed forward over the vessel in a posture of quiet attention. The body is shaped from a single mass of polished red clay, with the maiden's long hair flowing down her back and pooling at the base.

The figure is decorated in the matte-on-polished technique long associated with San Ildefonso, with sgraffito and matte slip designs set against the deeply burnished red ground. The face shows incised features; a butterfly motif decorates the bodice; and a scalloped band suggests the edge of a shawl that wraps the figure and trails to the base. The olla she holds is encircled with a stepped sun pattern, and the wide bowl at her feet bears a central medallion of radiating geometric devices framed by a banded border. San Ildefonso Pueblo, north of Santa Fe, is the same community that produced María Martinez and her descendants; the Vigils work within that polished-redware lineage rather than the better-known blackware tradition.

CONDITION

Excellent. No damage, chips, or repairs noted. Burnished surfaces retain a clean polish and the sgraffito decoration is crisp throughout.

DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS

• Overall: 5 3/4" H × 4 1/4" W × 5" D
• Material: Terracotta (polished redware)
• Technique: Hand-built, burnished, sgraffito and matte slip decoration
• Artists: Doug & Charlotte Vigil
• Pueblo: San Ildefonso
• Date: 2006
• Signed: "Doug & Charlotte Vigil / San Ildefonso Pueblo / 2006" incised on underside