Pre-Columbian, Southern Peru, Ica Valley, Paracas culture, ca. 500 to 300 BCE. A hand-built pottery bowl exhibiting astounding decorative motifs that are incised across the exterior surfaces and painted with vibrant hues of marigold, peach, teal, coral, pistachio, and espresso. The vessel is of a round-bottomed but stable form with tall walls and a thin rim that surrounds the deep basin, and the top of the rim is outlined with a solid strip of dark red pigment. The incised concentric rectangular decorations around the exterior walls represent a series of abstract 'eyes' that peer outwards around the circumference, each being separated by a blue-green column. Etched on the bottom of the bowl is a highly abstract deity known as the "Oculate Being" - so called because of his massive eyes - who flies among a field of cruciform 'stars' and has a pair of wavy horns, green whiskers, a green arrow, and a lengthy beard emanating from his head, all encircling a visage bearing an ear-to-ear grin. Size: 8" Diameter x 3.625" H (20.3 cm x 9.2 cm)

Cf. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession numbers 62.266.18 and 63.232.79; also Princeton University Art Museum, object number 2013-80.

This piece has been tested using thermoluminescence (TL) analysis and has been found to be ancient and of the period stated.

Provenance: private Spain collection, acquired prior to the 1980s via descent

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#170727

Repaired from multiple pieces with restoration to areas of body and rim, and resurfacing with overpainting along new material and break lines. Abrasions and nicks to rim, walls, base, and basin, with touch-up painting to most green-hued decorations and some other scattered areas, and smooth earthen material within basin, likely to conceal repaired areas. Great preservation to incised motifs across exterior. Old inventory label along interior walls. TL drill holes beneath base and inside of rim along top.