Pre-Columbian, North Coast Peru, Moche IV, ca. 200 to 500 CE. A well-executed stirrup vessel in the form of a seated, perhaps blind man with a somber and vacant stare, seated upon crossed legs with hand resting upon his knees. He wears a cream hued slip-painted tunic and headdress and white ear ornaments. His face and hands are of a red hue. The figure sits upon the red upper surface of an otherwise cream-slipped vessel. According to scholar Elizabeth Benson, figures that present physical deformities or disabilities such as blindness - or in other cases, disease, lameness, or old age - represented priests who were in fact selected as such because of these conditions. They were believed to have been touched by the deities and in some respects associated with the realm of the deceased via sympathetic magic. Here we have a marvelous example possessing such rich and layered iconographic value in addition to marvelous artistry and technique. Size: 6.25" L x 5" W x 8.625" H (15.9 cm x 12.7 cm x 21.9 cm)

Provenance: Ex-California Museum of Ancient Art, Santa Monica, CA

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#115229

Minor surface wear and abrasions to vessel and rim.