Search Results:

<< Viewing Record 64 of 148 >>
View : Light Box | List View | Image List | Detailed
 


Maker(s):Unknown
Culture:Pre-Columbian; Nasca
Title:Vessel with anthropomorphic mythical being
Date Made:325-440 CE
Type:Ceramic
Materials:Earthenware with slip
Place Made:South America; Peru
Measurements:Overall: 6 9/16 in x 4 13/16 in; 16.7 cm x 12.2 cm
Accession Number:  AC C.1940.2
Credit Line:Gift of Mrs. George D. Pratt (Vera Hale)
Museum Collection:  Mead Art Museum at Amherst College
C-1940-2.jpg

Label Text:
Two wide eyes set into burgundy skin gaze out from between this figure’s whiskered mouth-mask and matching forehead ornament—attributes that identify the vessel’s subject as the “Anthropomorphic Mythical Being.”

Perhaps the most popular supernatural creature depicted in Nasca iconography, the Anthropomorphic Mythical Being often wraps around a vessel horizontally, its face framed by chunks of thick hair decorated with spherical bangles. The heavy black outlines encasing the geometric forms on this beaker mimic the focus on linear designs embodied by the most famous Nasca artistic accomplishment: monumental line drawings created by carefully arranging stones on the broad canvas of the Peruvian desert.
KS, 2014

Tags:
indigenous people; patterns; design; figures; red; tools; personification; drinking

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+C.1940.2

Research on objects in the collections, including provenance, is ongoing and may be incomplete. If you have additional information or would like to learn more about a particular object, please email fc-museums-web@fivecolleges.edu.

<< Viewing Record 64 of 148 >>