Pre-Columbian, North Coast Peru, Salinar culture, Salinar-Moche Transition period, ca. 500 BCE to 200 CE. A wonderful example of a hand-built pottery portrait vessel with an expressive countenance as well as highly burnished surfaces topped with vibrant red-orange slip pigment. The vessel exhibits the guise of a grimacing man with almond-shaped eyes bearing white-painted pupils, puffy eyelids beneath gently arched brows, flared nostrils decorated with white curvilinear bands that stretch across the cheek bones, and shallow nasolabial folds flanking both exposed rows of incised, white-hued teeth. An incised headband covers the top of his head and secures two spiraling pads atop his ears, and above the headband terminals on the verso is a broad, flared rim with a funnel-form mouth. The presentation of this vessel suggests this man is either a warrior or a shamanic individual who has entered an ayahuasca-induced trance. Size: 5.75" W x 9.1" H (14.6 cm x 23.1 cm)
Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection; ex-private Hans Juergen Westermann collection, Germany, collected from the 1950s to the 1960s
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#157118
Condition
Nicks to rim, body, and face, with light fading to pigmentation, and minor encrustations within some recessed areas, otherwise intact and excellent. Great preservation of facial detailing and nice remains of pigment throughout. Old inventory label beneath base.