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Vessel with Feline
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Little is known of the meaning of the beautifully abstracted felines so often incised on Paracas ceramics. The designs achieve much of their complexity through color applied as resin-based paint after the vessel was fired in a smoky atmosphere that blackened its surface. Two spouts joined by a bridge appear on many fine South Coast ceramics. The form probably had meaning, now lost.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineVessel with Feline, 700 BCE–1 CE. Peru, South Coast, Paracas (Cavernas) style (700 BCE–1 CE). Earthenware, resin-based paint; diameter: 14.2 cm (5 9/16 in.); overall: 11.3 cm (4 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of John Wise, 1948.477
