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Portrait Vessel of a Ruler100 B.C./A.D. 500
Ceramic and pigment
35.6 x 24.1 cm (14 x 9 1/2 in.)
Kate S. Buckingham Endowment, 1955.2338
Before Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World, great Indian civilizations thrived in Central and South America, with the richest and most powerful centered in the modern nations of Mexico, Guatemala, and Peru. Between the second century B.C. and the seventh century A.D., the Moche culture of Peru produced a naturalistic ceramic art that included portraits of great individuality and expressive power. This portrait vessel depicts a forceful ruler. Such vessels were placed in graves along with others that portray aspects of the Moche universe. In this respect, they correspond to the tomb paintings found in other civilizations.