Description:

Pre-Columbian, North Coast Peru, Moche, Phase III, ca. 350 to 550 CE. A hand-built pottery vessel with a stable base, a broad, apple-shaped body with a rounded shoulder, a stirrup-shaped handle, and a gently corseted spout. Depicted in relief on each side of the vessel is the fanged god Ai Apec (also Ai Apaec or the "Wrinkle Face" deity) - with a feline headdress, a serpent emanating from his belt, and a terrifying grimace - as he firmly pulls the hair of a maternal prisoner over her head as she holds her infant in a carrier strap behind her back. Ai Apec is perhaps readying his unoccupied hand to wield a ceremonial knife and take the mother's head as his personal trophy. Size: 5.625" W x 9.4" H (14.3 cm x 23.9 cm)

Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection, before 2010; ex-private T. Misenhimer collection, Beverly Hills, California, USA, collected from 1970-2008

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#173710

  • Condition: Professional repair and restoration, with resurfacing and overpainting along new material and break lines. Softening to some finer details, with fading to original pigment in scattered areas, and some surface roughness. Nice preservation to figures on body.

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December 15, 2022 8:00 AM MST
Louisville, CO, US

Artemis Fine Arts

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