|
exhibitions > recent: Of Land, Sea, and Sky
|
|
|
|
|
Figural vessel in the form of a Feline
head The largest, most fearsome land animals, felines were adopted as images of power and authority in many forms in the ancient Americas. The present example efficiently incorporates these attributes in the relatively simple stirrup spouted blackware figural vessel modeled as a feline head with staring eyes, open mouth, and projecting ears. The Chimu kingdom (900-1400 AD) occupied seven hundred square miles on the north coast of Peru. Chimu pottery was mostly mass produced mold made blackware. Reduction firing produced the black surface so common in Chimu ceramics. The most interesting Chimu pots exhibit Moche influence in their tall, elegant spouts. Scientific classification: "Panthera Onca or Leo Onca". |
