Bowl Depicting a Costumed Ritual Performer with Abstract Plants, Holding a Captive

Arts of the Americas

180 BCE–500 CE

Nazca
South coast, Peru

The imagery of this lively ceramic bowl directly associates agriculture with warfare. At the upper left, plants sprout and grow from the mouths of decapitated heads, signaling the bounty that results from sacrifice. In the center, a costumed figure wearing a whiskered mask and holding a captive channels the power of a wild cat to keep eager mice away from the agricultural abundance.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of the Americas

Culture: Nasca
Title: Bowl Depicting a Costumed Ritual Performer with Abstract Plants, Holding a Captive
Place: Peru (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 180 BCE–500 CE
Medium: Ceramic and pigment
Dimensions: 10.2 × 17.2 cm (4 × 6 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Kate S. Buckingham Endowment
Reference Number: 1955.1934
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/91097/manifest.json

Richard Townsend, “Deciphering the Nazca World: Ceramic Images from Ancient Peru,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 11, 2 (Spring 1985), pg. 134 (ill. photograph and line drawing).
Richard Townsend with Elizabeth Pope, Indian Art of the Americas at the Art Institute of
Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago and Yale University Press, 2016), 306, cat. 259.

Zurich, Switzerland, Museum Rietberg Zurich, Nasca: Geheimnisvolle Zeichen im Alten Peru, June 20–October 3, 1999, cat.; traveled to Vienna, Museum fur Volkerkunde, October 29, 1999–January 31, 2000.
Art Institute of Chicago, Super/Natural: Textiles of the Andes, Feb. 23-June 16, 2019, no cat.

Eduard Gaffron (1861–1931), Lima, Peru, from 1892 to 1912, then Berlin, from 1912 [History of the Department report (Joanne Behrens, 1985) and correspondence in curatorial file]; by descent to his children Mercedes Gaffron (1908–1993), Berlin then Durham, NC, and Hans Gaffron (1902–1979), Berlin then Chicago [correspondence and documentation of the Gaffron Collection in curatorial file]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1955.

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Bowl Depicting a Costumed Ritual Performer with Abstract Plants, Holding a Captive

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.