Lot 89
Pre-Columbian, North Coast Peru, Moche, Phase 3 to 4, ca. 400 to 700 CE. A hand-built pottery vessel with a globular body and an integral foot, a stirrup-shaped handle, and a cylindrical spout with a lightly-flared lip. The highly-burnished exterior is accentuated with red-brown and cream slip in a 'half-and-half' decorative style, and the colors on each half of the spout alternate with the color of the body below. The white half of the body is embellished with a wondrous scene showing a supernatural figure - with a reptilian headdress, a netted tunic with projecting feathers, and a fish-form lower body - grasping a large bird by the neck just before it is sacrificed with the curved sword held in the right hand. The iconography of this piece is symbolic of how the lives of all flying creatures will inevitably end on the ground and the waters below. A fantastic example of Moche artistry! Size: 6" W x 11" H (15.2 cm x 27.9 cm).
For a stylistically-similar example of a half-and-half vessel, please see the Museo Larco, catalog code ML010816: http://www.museolarco.org/catalogo/ficha.php?id=11901
For a similar example of the iconography, please see: Donnan, Christopher B. and Donna McClelland. "Moche Fineline Painting: Its Evolution and Its Artists." UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, Los Angeles, 1999, p. 41, fig. 3.3.
Provenance: private Colorado, USA collection; ex-private Dieterich collection, San Francisco, California, USA before 1990
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#144311
- Condition: Professional repair to portion of handle. Minor abrasions and nicks to base, body, handle, and spout, with small hole to side of body, and fading to some areas of original pigmentation. Light earthen deposits and manganese blooms throughout. Old inventory label on base.
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