Pre-Columbian, Peru (North Coast), Moche Culture, ca. 100 to 700 CE. This is a striking blackware mold-made portrait stirrup vessel in the tridimensional style, with the shape of the face sculpted as part of the pottery shape of the vessel (rather than painted on). It depicts the head of a very aged individual with deep wrinkles around the eyes, nose, and cheeks. The vessel has a rattle in a conical base with a cut-out "x" on its underside. Size: 4.7" W x 5.5" H (11.9 cm x 14 cm)

This would have been a portrait of an important member of Moche society; it is possible - even probable - that there are portraits of him as a young man found in other vessels, as we know of several examples of Moche portrait vessels portraying the same individual at different stages of life!

Provenance: Ex-New Hampshire collection, most acquired prior to 1985

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#119459

Intact