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Deity-Head Vessel
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
This is a stirrup-spouted vessel shaped as the effigy of a deity head with bulging, circular eyes from which hang pendants. A fanged, bandlike mouth is arranged horizontally on top of a projecting chin that is tipped with a three-dimensional, zoomorphic head. A chin strap reaches between two modeled knobs that double as ear ornaments, and the underpart of the chin is ornamented with chevrons. The face is painted red, yellow, and white over the burnished gray-black surface of the ceramic.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineDeity-Head Vessel, 900–400 BCE. Peru, North Coast, Tembladera people, Early Horizon (900-400 BCE). Ceramic with pigment applied after firing; overall: 27.6 x 14.9 x 19.2 cm (10 7/8 x 5 7/8 x 7 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund, 2009.82
