CC0 · no rights reserved
Plate with Supernatural Being
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
This plate is carved with a feline supernatural sacrificer who holds a severed human head in its clawed paws. The diagonal clusters of plant foliage at the figure’s shoulders and hips imply that death is tied to the earth’s fertility, one being a precondition for the other. The figure, therefore, may be an apotheosis of the life-death cycle.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit linePlate with Supernatural Being, 900–600 BCE. Central Andes, north coast, probably Jequetepeque Valley, Cupisnique people. Stone (probably steatite [soapstone]); overall: 4 x 16.4 cm (1 9/16 x 6 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 2021.131
