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Vessel with Butterfly Headdress
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
The headdress shown on this vessel combines a serpent's mouth with a butterfly's proboscis (feeding tube), which curls between the eyes. The butterfly often appears in the headdress of the Great Goddess, an extremely important Teotihuacán deity. Stucco (paper-thin, painted plaster) is fragile and usually does not survive well; the stucco of the basin in this case has been repaired.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineVessel with Butterfly Headdress, 1–550 CE. Central Mexico, Teotihuacán, Classic period. Ceramic, stucco, pigment; diameter: 15.6 x 15.8 cm (6 1/8 x 6 1/4 in.); overall: 15.5 cm (6 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James C. Gruener, 1990.231
