Pre-Columbian, Peru, Nazca culture, probably Phase 6 or 7, ca. 600 BCE to 800 CE. A bulbous olla with a narrow neck and slightly flared spout, this piece is covered in bright and fantastical abstract iconography. Size: 4.95" W x 4.75" H (12.6 cm x 12.1 cm)

This style of painting corresponds to later Nazca styles, when supernatural figures became the center of the artists' attention and their more fantastical elements - here two figures with enormous zoomorphic mouth masks and long, dagger-like tongues - are more exaggerated than their human ones. Agricultural motifs stretch above disembodied heads (which may represent war trophies or revered ancestors). Nazca pots were made using the coil and smoothing technique, never molded; their wide range of polychrome slips included pigments made with minerals like hematite, limonite, and magnetite, as well as white kaolin clay. Colored portions of the vessel were painted with brushes made from llama and alpaca fur, and then given black outlines.

Provenance: Ex- Private Atlanta, GA collection

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#119896

Intact, with small surface pitting and vivid paint with bright colors.