Deity-Head Vessel

900–400 BC

Deity-Head Vessel, 900–400 BC. Peru, North Coast, Tembladera people, Early Horizion (900-400 B.C.). 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 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. The Tembladera style is one of several very early styles that developed on the northern desert coast of Peru.